People Who Do Something Once Are Likely to Do It Again

Proposed psychological miracle

The Ben Franklin issue is a proposed psychological phenomenon: a person who has already performed a favor for another person is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person. An explanation for this is cognitive dissonance. People reason that they help others considering they like them, fifty-fifty if they do not, because their minds struggle to maintain logical consistency between their actions and perceptions.

The Benjamin Franklin effect, in other words, is the effect of ane'south concept of self coming under assault. Every person develops a persona, and that persona persists considering inconsistencies in 1's personal narrative go rewritten, redacted, and misinterpreted.^[one]

Franklin's observation of effect [edit]

Benjamin Franklin, after whom the outcome is named, quoted what he described as an "onetime maxim" in his autobiography: "He that has once done you a kindness will be more than gear up to practice you some other, than he whom you yourself have obliged."^[ii]

In his autobiography, Franklin explains how he dealt with the animosity of a rival legislator when he served in the Pennsylvania legislature in the 18th century:

Having heard that he had in his library a sure very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that volume, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return'd it in about a week with some other note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the Firm, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.

Research [edit]

The initial study of the outcome was done by Jecker and Landy in 1969, in which students were invited to take function in a Q&A competition run past the researcher in which they could win sums of money. After this competition was over, one-3rd of the students who had "won" were approached by the researcher, who asked them to render the coin on the grounds that he had used his own funds to pay the winners and was running brusque of money now; another third were asked by a secretary to return the money because it was from the psychology department and funds were low; some other third were not at all approached. All three groups were then asked how much they liked the researcher. The 2nd group liked him the least, the first group the most – suggesting that a refund asking by an intermediary had decreased their liking, while a direct request had increased their liking.^{[3] [4]}

In 1971, University of North Carolina psychologists John Schopler and John Compere carried out the following experiment:

They had their subjects administer learning tests to accomplices pretending to be other students. The subjects were told the learners would watch as the teachers used sticks to tap out long patterns on a series of wooden cubes. The learners would and so be asked to repeat the patterns. Each teacher was to try out ii different methods on two dissimilar people, ane at a time. In one run, the teachers would offer encouragement when the learner got the patterns right. In the other run of the experiment, the instructor insulted and criticized the learner when they erred. Later on, the teachers filled out a debriefing questionnaire that included questions about how bonny (as a man being, not romantically) and likable the learners were. Across the board, the subjects who received the insults were rated equally less attractive than the ones who got encouragement.

In curt, the subjects' ain conduct toward the accomplices shaped their perception of them – "You tend to similar the people to whom you are kind and dislike the people to whom you are rude."^[1]

Results were reproduced in a more contempo just smaller report by psychologist Yu Niiya with Japanese and American subjects.^[5]

Effect equally an case of cerebral dissonance [edit]

This perception of Franklin has been cited as an instance inside cognitive dissonance theory, which says that people alter their attitudes or beliefs to resolve tensions, or "dissonance", between their thoughts, attitudes, and deportment. In the case of the Ben Franklin effect, the dissonance is between the bailiwick's negative attitudes to the other person and the knowledge that they did that person a favor.^{[6] [7]}

Culling explanations [edit]

Psychologist Yu Niiya attributes the phenomenon to the requestee reciprocating a perceived endeavor by the requester to ignite friendly relations.^[8] This theory would explain the Ben Franklin effect'southward absence when an intermediary is used.

Uses [edit]

In the sales field, the Ben Franklin effect tin be used to build rapport with a client.^[9] Instead of offering to help the potential client, a salesperson can instead inquire the potential customer for assistance: "For instance, ask them to share with you what product benefits they notice most compelling, where they think the market is headed, or what products may exist of interest several years from now. This pure favor, left unrepaid, can build likability that will enhance your power to earn that customer'due south time and investment in the futurity."^[10]

The Benjamin Franklin upshot can also be observed in successful mentor-protege relationships. Such relationships, one source points out, "are defined by their fundamental imbalance of cognition and influence. Attempting to proactively reciprocate favors with a mentor can backfire, equally the role reversal and unsolicited assistance may put your mentor in an unexpected, awkward situation".^[10] The Ben Franklin effect was cited in Dale Carnegie's bestselling volume How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie interprets the request for a favor every bit "a subtle but effective course of flattery".

As Carnegie suggests, when nosotros enquire a colleague to do us a favour, we are signalling that we consider them to take something we don't, whether more intelligence, more cognition, more than skills, or whatever. This is some other fashion of showing admiration and respect, something the other person may not have noticed from us earlier. This immediately raises their opinion of us and makes them more willing to help us over again both because they enjoy the admiration and accept genuinely started to like us.^[11]

Psychologist Yu Niiya suggests that the Ben Franklin effect vindicates Takeo Doi'southward theory of amae (甘え), equally described in The Beefcake of Dependence. Information technology states that dependent, childlike behavior can induce a parent-kid bail where 1 partner sees themselves equally the caretaker.^[5] In consequence, amae creates a human relationship where one person feels responsible for the other, who is then free to act immaturely and make demands.

One commentator has discussed the Ben Franklin effect in connection with dog training, thinking "more than near the human side of the human relationship rather than nearly the dogs themselves." While trainers often distinguish between the impact of positive and negative reinforcement-based training methods on the dogs, it can also exist relevant to "consider the furnishings that these two approaches may have upon the trainer. The Ben Franklin Effect suggests that how nosotros care for our dogs during preparation influences how we think most them as individuals – specifically, how much we like (or dislike) them. When nosotros do nice things for our dogs in the form of treats, praise, petting and play to reinforce desired behaviors, such handling may event in our liking them more. And, if we employ harsh words, collar jerks or hitting in an endeavor to change our canis familiaris's behavior, and so...we will start to like our canis familiaris less."^[12]

Converse [edit]

The reverse example is also believed to be true, namely that we come up to detest a person whom we did wrong to. We de-humanize them to justify the bad things we did to them.^[3]

It has been suggested that if soldiers who have killed enemy servicemen in gainsay situations afterwards come to hate them, it is considering this psychological maneuver helps to "decrease the dissonance of killing".^[3] Such a phenomenon might as well "explain long-standing grudges like Hatfield vs. McCoy" or vendetta situations in diverse cultures: "Once we start, we may not be able to stop and appoint in beliefs we would normally never allow."^[thirteen] Equally ane commentator has put information technology, "Jailers come to expect down on inmates; military camp guards come to dehumanize their captives; soldiers create derogatory terms for their enemies. Information technology'southward difficult to injure someone you admire. It's fifty-fifty more difficult to kill a fellow human being. Seeing the casualties you create as something less than you, something deserving of damage, makes information technology possible to proceed seeing yourself as a practiced and honest person, to go on beingness sane."^[1]

This should not contradict Self-licensing; Both are not facts, thus, they tin can never contradict each other because simply both of them are no more "feelings" that are subjective from person to another.

See also [edit]

• Foot-in-the-door technique
• Icebreaker (facilitation)
• Sunk-price fallacy

Notes [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c} McRaney, David (2011-10-05). "The Benjamin Franklin Effect". You Are Non And so Smart. You Are Non So Smart. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
2. ^ From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, folio 48 Archived January xviii, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Ben Franklin Effect". Changing Minds . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
4. ^ Jecker, Jon; Landy, David (August 1, 1969). "Liking a Person as a Function of Doing Him a Favour". Human being Relations. 22 (four): 371–378. doi:10.1177/001872676902200407. S2CID 145408235.
5. ^ ^{a b} Niiya, Yu (21 September 2015). "Does a Favor Asking Increase Liking Toward the Requester?". The Journal of Social Psychology. 156 (2): 211–221. doi:ten.1080/00224545.2015.1095706. PMID 26392141. S2CID 6800394.
6. ^ Paul Henry Mussen, Marking R. Rosenzweig & Arthur L. Blumenthal (1979). Psychology: an introduction, p.403. University of Michigan. ISBN 0-669-01672-ane
7. ^ Tavris, Carol; Elliot Aronson (2008). Mistakes were made (but non by me). Pinter and Martin. pp. 28–29. ISBN978-1-905177-21-9.
8. ^ Lebowitz, Shana. "Harness the ability of the 'Ben Franklin Effect' to get someone to like you". Business organization Insider. Business organization Insider Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
9. ^ "When Yous Ask for a Raise and Don't Get It". Raise Guide. 2019-11-22. Retrieved 2019-eleven-30 .
10. ^ ^{a b} Dalton, Steve (Jan 17, 2014). "Harness the Ben Franklin Effect, Boost Your Career". The Huffington Post . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
11. ^ "Get Others to Similar You lot: The Benjamin Franklin Effect". Manage Train Learn . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
12. ^ "The Ben Franklin Effect". 2014-01-29. Retrieved 15 Dec 2016.
13. ^ Becher, Jonathan (November 16, 2011). "Practise Me A Favor So You'll Similar Me: The Reverse Psychology of Likeability". Forbes . Retrieved fifteen December 2016.

Further reading [edit]

• Schopler, John; Compere, John South. (1971). "Effects of being kind or harsh to another on liking". Periodical of Personality and Social Psychology. twenty (two): 155–159. doi:10.1037/h0031689. ISSN 0022-3514.
• Ben Franklin Effect at Tabroot
• The Ben Franklin Issue: An Unexpected Fashion to Build Rapport Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect

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