Reciprocity (social psychology)

In social psychology, reciprocity is a social norm of responding to an action executed by another person with a similar or equivalent action. This typically results in rewarding positive actions and punishing negative ones. As a social construct, reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are generally nicer and more cooperative. This construct is reinforced in society by fostering an expectation of mutual exchange. While the norm is not an innate quality in human beings, it is learned and cemented through repeated social interaction. Reciprocity may appear to contradict the predicted principles of self-interest. However, its prevalence in society allows it to play a key role in the decision-making process of self-interested and other-interested (or altruistic) individuals. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as reciprocity bias, or the preference to reciprocate social actions.

Reciprocal actions differ from altruistic actions in that reciprocal actions tend to follow from others' initial actions, or occur in anticipation of a reciprocal action, while altruism, an interest in the welfare of others over that of oneself, points to the unconditional act of social gift-giving without any hope or expectation of future positive responses. Some distinguish between pure altruism (giving with no expectation of future reward) and reciprocal altruism (giving with limited expectation or the potential for expectation of future reward). For more information on this idea, see altruism or altruism (ethics).

History

Reciprocity dates as far back as the time of Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BC). Hammurabi's code, a collection of 282 laws and standards, lists crimes and their various punishments, as well as guidelines for citizens' conduct. The "eye for an eye" principles in which the laws were written mirror the idea of direct reciprocity. For example, if someone caused the death of another person, they too would be put to death.

Reciprocity was also a cornerstone of Ancient Greece. In Homeric Greece, citizens relied on reciprocity as a form of transaction as there was no formal system of government or trade. In Homer's Iliad, he illustrates several instances of reciprocal transactions in the form of gift giving. For example, in Book VI of the Iliad, Glaucus and Diomedes exchange armor when they discover that their grandfathers were friends. However, there were times when direct reciprocity was not possible, especially in times of great need when a citizen had nothing to give for repayment. Thus, delayed reciprocity was also prevalent in Greek culture at this time. Delayed reciprocity refers to doing a positive action in service of another, including a gift or favor, with the understanding that they will repay this favor at another time when the initial giver is in great need. This form of reciprocity was used extensively by travelers, particularly in the Odyssey. Odysseus often had to rely on the kindness of human strangers and other mythological creatures to secure resources along his journey.

In the classical Greek polis, large-scale projects such as construction of temples, building of warships and financing of choruses were carried out as gifts from individual donors. In Rome, wealthy elite were linked with their dependents in a cycle of reciprocal gift giving. As these examples suggest, reciprocity enjoyed a cultural prestige among ancient aristocracies for whom it was advantageous. The institutionalization of reciprocity has its origins in ancient societies, but continues today in politics and popular culture. For more, see Reciprocity (social and political philosophy).

As an adaptive mechanism

Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin attribute the very nature of humans to reciprocity. They claim humans survived because our ancestors learned to share goods and services "in an honored network of obligation." Thus, the idea that humans are indebted to repay gifts and favors is a unique aspect of human culture. Cultural anthropologists support this idea in what they call the "web of indebtedness" where reciprocity is viewed as an adaptive mechanism to enhance survival. Within this approach, reciprocity creates an interdependent environment where labor is divided so that humans may be more efficient. For example, if one member of the group cares for the children while another member hunts for food for the group, each member has provided a service and received one in return. Each member can devote more time and attention to his or her allotted task and the whole group benefits. This meant that individuals could share resources without actually giving them away. Through the rule of reciprocity, sophisticated systems of aid and trade were possible, bringing immense benefits to the societies that utilized them. Given the benefits of reciprocity at the societal level, it is not surprising that the norm has persisted and dictates our present cognition and behavior.

The power of reciprocity

Reciprocity is not only a strong determining factor of human behavior; it is a powerful method for gaining one's compliance with a request. The rule of reciprocity has the power to trigger feelings of indebtedness even when faced with an uninvited favor irrespective of liking the person who executed the favor. Thus, individuals who we might not even like have the power to greatly increase our chances of doing them a favor simply by providing us with a small gift or favor prior to their request. Furthermore, we are obliged to receive these gifts and favors which reduces our ability to choose to whom we wish to be indebted. The majority of these individuals who responded never inquired into Kunz's identity, they were merely responding to his initial gesture with a reciprocal action.

Cooperation

Fehr & Gächter (2000) in "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments" showed that, when acting within reciprocal frameworks, individuals are more likely to deviate from purely self-interested behavior than when acting in other social contexts. Participants were allotted an endowment of 20 monetary units (i.e. dollars). They were given the choice to anonymously donate how much of their endowment to contribute to a public good. All contributions from each participant was multiplied by a factor such as by 10, and then the multiplied sum was distributed equally, regardless of what share of the total an individual contributed. This experiment illustrates the free-rider problem, where an individual in a group benefits from the contributions of others, while simultaneously not contributing any of their own resources. The optimal outcome occurs when every participant contributes the maximum amount, allowing the highest amount of funds to be shared, while involving cooperation by all. Other conditions in this experiment included punishment conditions, where participants could penalize non-contributing actors. This experiment found that without punishments, contributions declined, demonstrating when and how free-riding occurs. Across punishment conditions, contributions were high and stayed relatively stable. Participants were willing to use some of their funds to punish non-contributors, indicating how important negative reciprocity can be in action.

Reciprocity over self-interest

Magnanimity is often repaid with disproportionate amounts of kindness and cooperation, and treachery with disproportionate amounts of hostility and vengeance, significantly surpassing amounts determined or predicted by conventional economic models of rational self-interest. Moreover, reciprocal tendencies are frequently observed in situations wherein transaction costs associated with specific reciprocal actions are high and present or future material rewards are not expected. Whether self-interested or reciprocal action dominates the aggregate outcome is particularly dependent on context; in markets or market-like scenarios characterized by competitiveness and incomplete contracts, reciprocity tends to win out over self-interest.

The Prisoner's Dilemma

thumb|300x300px|Prisoner's Dilemma Matrix.

The Prisoner's Dilemma is a key example of reciprocity and self-interest in action. In this scenario, frequently visualized by a 2x2 grid, both A and B have committed the same crime, together. Their punishment for the crime is dependent on if they each confess or not, in relation to if the other actor confesses as well.

[3 years, 3 years]: If both confess, they both receive a moderate sentence.
[0 years, 5 years]: If A confesses and B stays silent, A receives no punishment, while B receives a severe sentence.
[5 years, 0 years]: If A stays silent and B confesses, A receives a severe sentence, while B receives no punishment.
[1 year, 1 year]: If both stay silent, they both receive a minor sentence.

The Dilemma

Individually, each prisoner is incentivized to confess, regardless of what the other does. This leads to a suboptimal outcome for both, where they both end up with a moderate sentence. However, if they both agree to stay silent, they both receive a minor sentence, a better outcome for both.

The Prisoner's Dilemma is a telling demonstration of reciprocity because each actor is incentivized to cooperate to ensure the best outcome for them both. The choice to testify can lead to the optimal outcome for one actor if the other actor does not testify, but since this cannot be guaranteed, it is regarded as a safer choice to choose to stay silent in the hopes that the other actor will make this choice as well. In continuous games of the Prisoner's Dilemma run by a computer, over time, the computer will defer to the strategy of cooperation, indicating how reciprocity is a choice reached after the player observes the other actor working in their favor. This is a significant illustration of the idea of 'tit-for-tat', where in payoff-based scenarios, individuals will commit to cooperative strategies if they stand to gain from them as well.

Positive and negative reciprocity

Positive reciprocity occurs when an action committed by one individual that has a positive effect on someone else is returned with an action that has an approximately equal positive effect. For example, if someone mows their neighbor's lawn, the person who received this favor should then return this action with another favor such as a small gift. However, the reciprocated action should be approximately equal to the first action in terms of positive value, otherwise this can result in an uncomfortable social situation. If someone mows another person's lawn and that person returns the favor by buying that individual a car, the reciprocated gift is inappropriate because it does not equal the initial gesture, whereas returning the favor with something small but kind, like baking a cake, would be considered commensurate to the situation. Individuals expect actions to be reciprocated by actions that are approximately equal in value.

One example of positive reciprocity is that waitresses who smile broadly or give small gifts to their patrons receive more tips than waitresses who present a minimal smile. Also, free samples are not merely opportunities to taste a product but rather invitations to engage in the rule of reciprocity. Many people find it difficult to accept the free sample and walk away. Instead, they buy some of the product even when they did not find it that enjoyable. For example, if an individual commits a violent act against a person, it is expected that person would return with a similar act of violence. In more modern societies and structures of justice, this generally translates into legal action, jail time, and even the death penalty. If, however, the reaction to the initial negative action is not approximately equal in negative value, this violates the norm of reciprocity and what is prescribed as allowable. It is often referred to as "bartering" or "haggling" (see reciprocity (cultural anthropology) for more information).

Reciprocal concessions

There are more subtle ways of initiating the reciprocity rule than merely doing something nice for someone so you may expect something in return. One instance of this more subtle form of reciprocity is the idea of reciprocal concessions. In a reciprocal concession, the requester initially makes a larger request, then a smaller request that is more feasible, making the respondent more likely to agree to a second request.

Under the rule of reciprocity, we are obligated to concede to someone who has made a concession to us. That is, if an individual starts off by requesting something large and you refuse, you feel obligated to consent to their smaller request even though you might not be interested in either of the things they are offering. Robert Cialdini illustrates an example of this phenomenon by telling a story of a boy who asks him to buy five-dollar circus tickets and, when Cialdini refuses, asks him to buy some one dollar chocolate bars. Cialdini feels obligated to return the favor and consents to buying some of the chocolate bars.

Norm of Cooperation: People tend to align with cooperative norms when they observe the other person acting in good faith.
Contrast Effect: The smaller request appears more reasonable when compared to the larger one.

Mutual concession is a procedure that can promote compromise in a group so that individuals can refocus their efforts toward achieving a common goal. Reciprocal concessions promote compromise in a group so that the initial and incompatible desires of individuals can be set aside for the benefit of social cooperation. However, one must proceed with caution when using this technique. If the first request is so big that it is seen as unreasonable, the door in the face technique proves useless as the concession made after may not be perceived as genuine. The door in the face technique is not to be confused with the foot-in-the-door technique where individuals attempting to get a person to agree with a large request by first getting them to agree to a small or moderate request.

Influence: Science and Practice

The book Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini is a prominent work in the field of reciprocity and social psychology. First published in 1984, the work outlines the main principles of influence, and how they can be applied in one's life to succeed, especially in business endeavors. People use heuristics or general strategies, to make decisions more easily in a complex and stimulating world, and these strategies can be embraced to help oneself influence others.

The seven principles are:

Reciprocation
Commitment and consistency
Social proof
Liking
Authority
Scarcity
Unity

For more on Influence, see Influence: Science and Practice.

Reciprocity in the workplace

Social reciprocity holds significant importance in the workplace as it contributes to the foundation for effective collaboration, teamwork, and a positive work environment. The principle of reciprocity fosters a sense of trust and interdependence among employees, which enhances overall workplace dynamics. When employees reciprocate positive actions, such as providing support, sharing information, or acknowledging achievements, it contributes to a culture of mutual respect and cooperation.

Practicing social reciprocity in the workplace can strengthen interpersonal relationships, recognized as a social norm within employees of the same status. Meanwhile, failed reciprocity at work has the potential to lead to negative emotions and heightened stress. By experiencing a continued lack of reciprocity, the perceived positive work culture may erode, causing negative associations to form with the workplace and one's coworkers. Failed reciprocity, a lack of an equivalent favor in return for a positive action, in the workplace has the potential to diminish trust, weaken social support, and can even increase the probability of suffering from stress-related diseases. A meta-analysis by Greco et al. (2019) analyzed negative workplace behaviors ranging from bullying and harassment to counterproductive work behavior.

Study Design

They separated them into different categories according to severity (minor, moderate, severe), activity type: if the action was the result of withholding a positive behavior, refusing to act, or the execution of a negative behavior (passive, balanced, active), and target (whether the behavior was reciprocated or displaced to another person). They stated that the strategy treats balance as a goal, especially because it involves a relatively proportional response to harm.

A coordinated meta-analysis of 30 fMRI studies concluded that trust in reciprocity might cause an adverse feeling at the beginning of a series of interactions with a stranger. This is likely due to the inherent uncertainty of a decision outcome, leading individuals to be unsure about whether the other person will reciprocate their actions.

Self-serving reciprocity

Reciprocity has been previously documented as automatic because it requires less cognitive control than other self-serving behaviors. The researchers of a series of experiments around this topic wanted to investigate whether this automatic reciprocity was motivated by true fairness or whether it is a result of wanting to appear like a fair person.

Reciprocity in conversation analysis

Conversation analysis, a methodology used to study how shared understanding is reached in naturally occurring conversation, employs the principle of reciprocity to explain how certain phenomena occur in conversation. Reciprocity occurs in conversational activities and practices such as:

Turn-Taking:
Reciprocity is present in the mechanism of turn-taking, where participants coordinate the exchange of speaking turns. When one speaker asks a question, the recipient typically provides an answer, which reflects reciprocity in verbal engagement.
Sequential Organization:
Conversations are organized in sequences, such as adjacency pairs (e.g., question-answer, greeting-response). Reciprocity ensures that one part of the pair (e.g., a question) creates an expectation for a corresponding response (for example, an answer).), ensuring that interactions are constructive and socially appropriate.

Reciprocity in non-human primates

The topic of reciprocity in non-human primates has been a field with a lot of research contradictions and opposite findings; however, in a recent meta-analysis, the researchers concluded that primates have the cognitive and social prerequisites needed to use reciprocity. They evaluated previous findings and found that there are more positive than negative findings.