Jun 10 2008
Reciprocity Killed the Cat
Yesterday I promised you more about the 6 laws which were:
1. law of reciprocity
2. law of authority
3. law of liking
4. law of commitment and consistency
5. law of social proof
6. law of scarcity
1. Law of Reciprocity
This means “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” You do something for another person first and then you can go back to them for help, the marketing partnership you desired, or the meeting you wanted to setup.
This even works when it’s unsolicited because the person feels some obligation to you for helping them. There’s an inherent human nature to pay you back because they know if everyone takes and never gives back the world would stop.
People would stop giving because noone else is giving back and things would grind to a halt.
Cialdini mentions the Hare Krishna group that used this unwanted giving to start the law of reciprocation. They were the weird looking guys who once roamed airports wearing white robes looking very monk like. They would give you a rose and then say “a donation would be much appreciated” or something to that effect.
They never made it mandatory but it was well known it would be appreciated. Most people didn’t even want the flower but gave a dollar or 2 anyway. People started refusing the flower because reciprocation is so powerful they didn’t want to be obligated.
Many people whether they’d donated or not threw the flower away! Those crafty Krishnas would go to the trash cans, dig out the already given flowers and recycle them by giving them to the next “victim”. So they were ’selling’ the same flowers over and over again sometimes 20 or more times per individual flower.
Needless to say this method of fundraising was very effective for them.
It shows you how to get your start. Offer, or better yet do, something to someone you just met or a contact you just made. Whether they ask for it or not as long as they know you did something to help them most times they’ll be more than willing to help you in return.
Tomorrow, law 2…
One Response to “Reciprocity Killed the Cat”
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Very good theory: very true. It’s amazing how one nice little thing will make somebody feel obligated.