According to Blau, what is the significance of the social norm of reciprocation?

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Psychology

According to Blau, what is the significance of the social normof reciprocation?

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Norm of reciprocity The norm of reciprocity is the expectation that people will respond favorably to each other by returning benefits for benefits and responding with either indifference or hostility to harms The social norm of reciprocity often takes different forms in different areas of social life or in different societies All of them however are distinct from related ideas such as gratitude the Golden Rule or mutual goodwill An underlying norm of reciprocity is by itself a powerful engine for motivating creating sustaining and regulating the cooperative behavior required for selfsustaining social organizations as well as for controlling the damage done by the unscrupulous The power and ubiquity of the norm of reciprocity can be used against the unwary however and is the basis for the success of many malicious confidence games Minor usually less malicious examples are techniques used in advertising and other propaganda whereby a small gift of some kind is proffered with the expectation of producing a desire on the part of the recipient to reciprocate in some way for example by purchasing a product making a donation or becoming more receptive to a line of argument These minor examples include gifts of stickers and pens distributed by charities Positive and negative Two key elements of the norm of reciprocity are positive and negative aspects to the term A positive norm of reciprocity is the embedded obligations created by exchanges of benefits or favours among individuals The recipient feels indebted to the favour or benefit giver until heshe repays Chen 2009 The positive reciprocity norm is a common social expectation where a person who helps another person can expect positive feedback whether its in the form of a gift a compliment a loan a job reference etc In social psychology positive reciprocity refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action rewarding kind actions This norm is so powerful it allows the initial giver to ask for something in See Answer

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