RECIPROCITY

CIALIDIN’S RECIPROCITY
Dr. Cialdini says in his book that it is through the influence processes that we can be able to manage and generate change in our lives. He stresses the need for those wishing to create and sustain the change to fully understand the workings of the process of influence. Currently, there is a lot of adduced evidence which exist on how, why and when people say yes to attempts of influence. The Author extracts the six universal principles of influence and which are so powerful and crucial in our day today lives.
In Psychology, compliance refers to an act of responding in a favorable way to implicit or explicit requests which are offered by others. An explicit request includes a direct request for donations while an implicit includes advertisements promoting a company’s’ products without necessarily asking the consumers to buy. In both cases, the targeted people realize that they are being requested to respond in a desired way (Cialdini, 2009).
Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into 6 types which are based on the principles of psychology which direct human behavior. The Information Processing theory approaches the study of the cognitive development which was evolved out by the American traditional experiment in Psychology. Theorists in the Information processing suggested that just as the computer, the minds of a human being are a system which can be able to process information via the use of logical strategies and rules. The mind just like the computer has a very limited capacity for nature and the amount of information it can possess. And just like children can become sophisticated thinkers because of the changes of their sensory systems (hardware) and in the strategies and rules (Software) they learn, then the computer just the same way can me made a good processor of information by effecting changes of its hardware (Microchips and circuit boards) and its software through programming.
To be able to know compliance professions, Cialdini started the participant observation and found that some principles were commonly utilized to increase the chances of reciprocation, credibility, liking/friendship, successful compliancy, scarcity and social validation.
What always determines how best an individual can be able to manage the demands of complex information are the processing demands, when several tasks have to be performed simultaneously. The theoretical frameworks always address the mechanisms of information processing, the changes that are effected when the processes are automated, and the sequences of events in the brain as well as the brain regions which are involved in the different types of information processing (Cialdini, 2009).
Controlled processing in this case refers to a thinking which is conscious, voluntary, effortful and intentional. Many activities that we perform on a daily basis rely on a controlled, effortful and cognitive processing. For instance, when we play cards, we study or fill out a form, then by these activities, we will be employing a voluntary use of conscious effort and attention. At most times, we would expect fighting to fall under this category as well and for the inexperienced people who love it, then it does! But to be able to do this, then we need to explore some more flowing and ingrained state of mind when fighting and determine whether it is more favorable compared to the controlled conscious and effortful thinking in the course of a fight. Some things or activities can easily be performed with no or little conscious effort especially when we carry out learned tasks or routine actions which are familiar or constant under the circumstances. Usually learning to drive a car, walking and learning to type always involves effortful/controlled processing but however, with practice, all the skills can now become automatic. Over time, people will normally have the ability of performing very highly complex skills successfully and with a minimal conscious thought.
Automatic processing refers to thinking which is unintentional, effortless and non-conscious. In other words, Cialdini means it is the processing of information which in turn guides behavior but with no awareness, consciousness and without interference of other conscious activities which may be going on at the same moment. For example when someone drives slowly down a street, then this is referred to as “automatic processing” and when someone searches for a certain address, then it is called Conscious processing.
Social influence comes about when the thoughts of an individual or his actions are affected by other people. Social influence is portrayed in many forms which can include peer pressure, leadership, conformity, socialization, obedience, persuasion, sales and marketing. Social influence is identified by the three broad varieties which include:
Compliance: This is whereby people agree to agree with others while on the other side keeping their dissenting opinions very private.
Identification: This is a situation where people are influenced by somebody who is respected and liked for example a favorite uncle or a famous celebrity.
Internalization: This is whereby people accept a behavior or belief and agree both privately and publicly.
The social control theory is a perspective which forecasts that when the social constraints on the antisocial behavior are absent or weakened, then delinquent manners will emerge. The control theory asks why people obey rules instead of violating them rather than stressing the causative factors associated with criminal behavior. The theory stresses on the idea that people in a community commit criminal or delinquent acts due to weaknesses of restraining forces on them.
Research in Social Psychology has utilized the dual process approach in that in one study which demonstrated the effect of being credible, Insko & Bochner (1966) invited 500 students of a university to study their opinion concerning sleep. At first, the students gave their own opinions on the optimum period of sleep and the average answer was given as being eight hours. The students then received some advice from two different sources, one from a Physiologist who won a Nobel Prize for being a specialist in sleep research while the second person was a YMCA instructor. Honestly, the former source represented a credible source while the 2nd one was a less credible source. The two experts varied in their answers concerning the appropriate sleeping hour required daily from zero to eight. The discrepancy therefore between the Experts’ answers and the students’ answer increased from 0 to 8. The students were asked to give their opinions concerning the appropriate number of sleeping hours after consulting the experts.
When the student’s opinion differed from the experts’ opinions, students stood a higher chance of changing their own answers after getting the advice from the more credible source (the Physiologist) than the Instructor from YMCA (a less credible source). We can therefore say that credible sources will always make people to be more likely to comply. This best explains why advertisement companies nowadays will quote the opinion of the experts’ and construct a clear sense of expertise by showing of a professional figure (Cialdini, 2009).
In the first chapter of the book, the author’s key premise is that in a complex world in which people are overloaded with more information which they are supposed to deal with, they always fall back on a decision making approach which is normally based on the generalizations. The generalizations emerge as a result of people being allowed to act in a correct style and manner with a limited time and thought. The author however claims that this people can be exploited and turned into weaponry by the people who know them to influence others to behave in a certain code. In this Chapter one, Cialdini defined the six weapons of but the major one is reciprocity:
Reciprocity-The most potent compliance techniques is the rule of reciprocation which will always prompt us to repay people what they have given us. When someone gives us a gift, we are always indebted to the giver and will often feel comfortable with the indebtedness and be compelled to cancel the debt. The rule of reciprocity is always widespread in almost all the human cultures which implies that it is necessary for creating interdependencies on which the cultures, societies and the civilizations are built. The reciprocation rule assures individuals that somebody can give something away first with an assurance that the initial gift will be paid eventually and that nothing will be lost.
This principle of reciprocity is very important since it builds the trust of relations and it has been internalized to be part of the socialization process for the millennium and it is second in nature. Dr. Richard Leakey, an Anthropologist considered the rule of reciprocity as a defining element to what it says to be human. He said that we are human beings because our ancestors had since time immemorial learnt share their skills and food in an honored network of obligation.
We are always trained from our early ages to comply with this rule of reciprocity because this is the foundation for the different human practices which include exchange of goods and services, division of labour and evolution of experts.
The rule of reciprocity is very powerful that it always overcomes our feelings of suspicion or dislike for the person who gives us these gifts. Cialdini cited the logrolling/ political patronage and contributions and the Krishna followers who used the donation-request procedures as examples.
The rule of reciprocity can trigger some unequal exchanges when the combination of the external shame and judgment and internal over the indebtedness threaten to exact their costs. We are always tempted to give out more than we received so that we can’t be subjects to ...