Regan
Regan (1971)
Laboratory experiment to test reciprocity
Aim:
To test whether participants who had received a favor from another would be more likely to help this person than if they had not received a favor.
Procedure:
One participant and a confederate of the experimenter were asked to rate paintings. In the experimental condition the confederate left the experiment and returned after a few minutes with two bottles of coca cola. He had bought one for himself and one for the participant. In the control condition, the participant did not receive a coke.
When all the paintings had been rated the experimenter left the room again. The confederate told the naive participant that he was selling raffle tickets for a new car and that the one who sold the most tickets could win $50. He then asked the participant if he would buy some tickets and said that even a small amount would help.
Results:
The participants in the experimental condition bought twice as many raffle tickets than participants in the control condition who had not received a favor first.
Evaluation:
This was a laboratory experiment with a high degree of control. It was possible to establish cause-effect relationships between “receiving a favor” and “returning a favor”. This supports the principle of reciprocity. There may be issues of artificiality in the experiment as well as sample bias. This limits the possibility of generalization. The findings have been supported by observations in real life.