Reciprocity, And Its Uses

 Hello, everybody! Today, I will be writing about a very different kind of topic. We've dealt with science, philosophy, books, and so much else, but today, I will deal with... PSYCHOLOGY!

I will primarily be focusing on ONE principle- that of reciprocity.

Now, what exactly IS reciprocity? Well, a simple Latin term for it is quid pro quo. English is "Tit For Tat". Hindi is "जैसी करनी वैसी भरनी". You get the point. It basically says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction (Newton's Third Law of Motion). This not only applies to objects and mindless forces, it also has a great power over us. Let's illustrate this with an example.

The Experiment

The coca cola experiment is one of the most well-known studies about reciprocity. It was published in 1971 by Dennis Regan, a professor at Cornell University. The results of the study prove the power of giving returns. In this experiment, Regan's assistant, "Joe", would leave the room at the same time for each subject, but in some cases, he returned with a can of Coke. At the end of the experiment, Joe asked the subjects if they would buy a raffle ticket from him to help him win a prize. In the condition where Joe did not give the participant a soda, the degree to which they liked Joe influenced how many raffle tickets they would buy. But, in the condition where Joe did give a soda, participants bought twice as many tickets as the no-soda condition, regardless of the degree to which they liked Joe. So, not only did people that liked Joe buy twice as many tickets, the value of the tickets they bought surpassed the value of the soda. In support of the Reciprocity principle, it's evident throughout this experiment that it pays to give.

You see how the people ended up paying an absolute stranger way more than they should have, simply because he bought a cheap bottle of Coke for them? If something this small can trigger this big a change, how big a change could something big trigger?

Bargaining

Another place where this is used is in bargaining. When one is bargaining, the seller starts high, buyer starts low, and in the end, they settle on somewhere in the middle, both satisfied. This is because they think both of them have made CONCESSIONS.

Concessions

Sellers constantly exploit this particular strategy. First, they ask for a ridiculously high price for an object that they know will not sell. Once the buyer says no, they ACT as though they've made a concession by bringing the price down to what they wanted in the first place. This is where the reciprocity principle comes into play. The buyer now feels obligated to make this concession as the seller has made one too, by buying the product. SNAP! The trap is shut, and the buyer trapped without even his realizing it. 

REJECTION-THEN-RETREAT

An amazing technique, it's basically what I explained in Concessions, but let me make it clearer. First, the demand is for something you know you will most probably not get. From here, the situation can go two ways. 
a) The person says yes, and you get an unbelievably amazing deal.
b) The person says no. Here, you reduce your request to what you wanted anyway. The principles of reciprocity are now at play, and it is highly likely that the person will say yes, and you'd have gotten what you wanted in the first place.

People can also use this in unhealthy ways. Take, for example, the Coca Cola Experiment illustrated above. Here, Joe made a clear profit by harnessing the forces of social reciprocity and exploiting them. The receivers of the Coke already felt like they OWED him for the coke, and when he gave them the chance to repay him, they pounced upon it.

A possible explanation of this is that society has always relied on a system of transactions, or give-and-take. People who only take and never give are shunned and not respected, which activates every alert signal in the body, and causes us to react in a way that is widely considered favourable.

Defence

We must not forget that a door that lets someone in can also let someone out. If we can use this upon others, others can also use it upon us, and we must always keep our guard up for it. You can't deny There is no denying that relying on this simplifies decision-making, and so, you can keep it on auto-pilot for most of the time, but the second you receive danger signals, switch to manual and think- "Am I being forced to do this? Is this concession really necessary? Am I even interested in buying this?" If the answer is no to all three, you're probably being manipulated, in which case you immediately put your foot down, and back out of the deal. If a deal needs manipulation to seal it, it probably isn't worth it anyway.

Anyway, that was it for today. I hope this was both informative and fun! Oh, and one last thing. Please don't use any of this on me. Hehe.

Signing Off, this is THE BIG V.