Reciprocity Norm

Definition

Reciprocity norm is the rule of human interaction that says people need to reciprocate the action of another person. Simply, this means that when a person is given a gift (which can take any number of forms) by another, the person must repay the gift. Every investigated society has a version of the reciprocity norm. The reciprocity norm has also been termed a web of indebtedness by cultural anthropologists.

The reciprocity norm's presence in every investigated society points to its importance and function. The reciprocity norm has many benefits for society, such as reciprocal altruism. There are also important sanctions for those who do not follow the norm in its prescribed mannerisms (which can vary from society to society). It is important that one is aware of how the norm can be abused.

Aspects of the Norm

The fact that the norm is present in every investigated society suggests that it is a vital component of human interaction. Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that reciprocity was clearly present in human beings' ancestral past and has contributed to human survival. They point to various experiments where reciprocity helps explain the mystery of altruism. “If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours” is common colloquialism that is based on reciprocity.

Reciprocity will occur regardless of whether the reciprocation is done publicly or privately. Studies have investigated the extent to which people will reciprocate even if the original gift-giver is completely unable to tell if the gift was reciprocated. It has been found that people reciprocate the gift, although gift recipients donated slightly less than they might have in a more public situation.

People are very good at detecting cheating in social situations, such as receiving a favor without repaying it. Humans excel in tasks in which the problem is set up as a social cheating scenario, whereas the same task set up as a purely numerical task results in much worse performance.

Other limits on the potential for cheating are enforced by society. Societies have various sanctions for people who break the reciprocity norm, ranging from calling someone a “mooch,” to social isolation, to serious legal consequences, which includes death in some cultures. Third parties will often intervene on behalf of someone who has just been shorted by a violation of the reciprocity norm, even if it means incurring some penalty of their own.

Abuses of the Norm

Importantly, the reciprocity norm itself does not have rules of interaction in most cultures (but see the crosscultural section later for an important caveat); instead, the norm simply says that the gift must be reciprocated in some fashion. This leaves open the potential for very uneven exchanges.

Dennis Regan clearly demonstrated this effect by setting up an experiment that was purportedly on art appreciation. In this experiment, a participant would come in and rate a painting. Another “participant” (who actually was working for the experiment—also known as a confederate) was also there to rate art. During the course of the experiment, the confederate gave the participant an unsolicited gift of a can of Coca-Cola. The confederate later asked the participant to purchase raffle tickets. Regan found that the gift of the Coke doubled the number of tickets purchased over a control condition. This is important because the cost of the Coke was significantly less than the cost of a single ticket. In fact, the confederate was able to get a 500% return on the cost of the gift in terms of raffle tickets purchased.

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