If anything, it's giving and not receiving that makes us value a friend more. It was the American statesman and inventor Ben Franklin who first observed the paradox, now called the Ben Franklin Effect: "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged." In a nutshell, while material favors don't even come close to the emotional talents of our friends, we still want to validate our personal judgment by investing special qualities in those we select to help.
In one classic study, participants won "contest money" from a researcher. Later the researcher approached some of them and explained he'd actually used his own money and had little left; could he have the money back? Most agreed. Later, the researchers found, those asked to do the favor rated the researcher more favorably than those not approached. Psychologists concur that the phenomenon stems from a desire to reconcile feeling and action, and to view our instincts and investments as correct: "Why am I going out of my way to help this guy? Well, he must be pretty nice." The fondness we feel toward our yoga class buddy will continue to grow if one day she asks for a ride home and we go out of our way to give it to her.
Taken from: psychologytoday.com/articles/
3 comments:
Hi Ruth,
This is a handy summary and intro to the topic.
What social psychology theories do you think might relate and help to explain this effect?
e.g., I'm thinking of cognitive dissonance, investment models of relationships, and also the notion of post-purchase rationalisation from consumer psychology - i.e., that once we've purchased something we instantly start to value it more highly to justify the money we've spent on it....So I'm wondering, if the BJ effect just a relationship-specific example of a more general cog. dissonance - or are there some other things also going on?
Just some thoughts and a hint towards linking this with other aspects of SP theory/research.
Also, note, if this is "taken from" then it really should be in direct quotes, with a link to the exact page source. This helps to make clear what you've written and what is a direct quote.
Hi James, thanks for that comment, very helpful. I'll definitely look into and explore some of those related theories:-)
Benjamin Franklin had a remarkable impact in so many ways, including in the area of human relations. A Benjamin Franklin article just received the ‘Top 100 Electricity Blogs’ Award http://bit.ly/z8Ckp
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