Doing someone a favour can, under some conditions, increase the giver's liking for the recipient, so asking for help may build goodwill.
Franklin borrowed a rare book from a rival legislator, who thereafter became a friend; Jecker and Landy tested the pattern experimentally in 1969. The proposed mechanism is effort justification: having helped, you must have thought the person worth helping.
In practice
- A senior colleague you find remote agrees to review your draft, and thereafter takes an interest in your career.
- Asking a difficult neighbour to sign for a parcel works better than three months of scrupulous politeness.
- Standing
- Inverts the intuitive direction of reciprocity, and follows from effort justification.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind