LAW OF RECIPROCITY
Definition
Reciprocity is a social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions. That is to say, when people receive something or some help, a feeling of indebtedness will occur, which will compel people to return the favor. If a person takes others' favor for granted, others will absolutely dislike that person.
For example, if your friend visits your home with a gift, it will be impolite if you visit his home empty-handed next time.
Experiment
Here’s a study conducted by Cornell. Participants were divided into two groups to perform a task. Half of them were left alone to complete the exercise, while the other half was interrupted by an assistant who left the room and brought cokes for them.
After the task, all the subjects were asked if they would like to buy some raffle tickets. The result was that subjects in the coke group bought twice as many tickets as the other group.
By using the Law of Reciprocity, in this case, giving cokes to participants, experimenters got more favors from participants and successfully touted more raffle tickets.
Applications in Business
When we hang out at Costco or other supermarkets, it is not hard to find the area to taste free food samples. Here is where shops utilize the Law of Reciprocity. By providing free food samples, the shops create a feeling of indebtedness in customers. To offset such a feeling, customers always compel themselves to buy the products.
So, is there any way to make such a tactic less effective?