Persuasive Technology

The Reciprocity Study

One social dynamic that may have potential for persuasive technology is the

rule of reciprocity. This unwritten social rule states that after you receive a

favor, you must pay it back in some way. Anthropologists report that the reci

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procity rule is followed in every human society.

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In my laboratory research, my colleagues and I set out to see if the rule of

reciprocity could be applied to interactions between humans and computers.

Specifically, we set up an experiment to see if people would reciprocate to a

computer that had provided a favor for them.

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I recruited Stanford students and people living in the Silicon Valley area to

be participants in the research. In total, 76 people were involved in the reci

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procity study.

Each ...