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.
Strength In 1971, Dennis Regan tested the strength of these two aspects of reciprocity in a study entitled "Effects of a Favor and Liking on Compliance." In this experiment, participants believed they were in an art appreciation experiment with a partner, "Joe", who was actually a confederate. During the experiment, Joe would offer a soft drink to his co-participant. After the experiment was over, Joe would ask the participant to buy raffle tickets from him. The more the participants liked Joe, the more likely they were to buy raffle tickets from him. However, when Joe had given them a soda, which thus indebted them to reciprocate, the participants feelings toward Joe were no longer a significant predictor of purchasing tickets. The rule of reciprocity proved to be more salient in this decision-making process than did how much they liked a person. 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.
Politics is another area where the power of reciprocity is evident. While politicians often claim autonomy from the feelings of obligation associated with gifts and favors that influence everyone else, they are also susceptible. In the 2002 election, U.S. Congress Representatives who received the most money from special interest groups were over seven times more likely to vote in favor of the group that had contributed the most money to their campaigns.
Automaticity In 1976, Phillip Kunz demonstrated the automatic nature of reciprocity in his experiment, "Season's greetings: From my status to yours" using Christmas cards. In this experiment, Kunz sent out holiday cards with pictures of his family and a brief note to a group of complete strangers. While he anticipated some responses, holiday cards came pouring back to him from people who had never met nor heard of him and who expressed no desire to get to know him any better. 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
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