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Reciprocity in social psychology refers to someone doing a favor for you and in return you feel like you must do so in the future. Positive reciprocal actions differ from altruistic actions as those only follow from other positive actions and they differ from social gift giving in that those are not actions taken with the hope or expectation of future positive responses.

Reciprocity happens because we needed in our society that is how it has evolved. Even if the favor is not directly done to you and instead someone helps out a member of your family, you still feel like you are in debt with that person and will go out of your way in the future if they ask for a favor. This is sometimes a trick that people will use against you. A con artist might do a small favor, make you feel in debt to that person and later on ask for a much bigger favor in return. Sadly we are willing to comply to that persons' request because we feel obligated to.

Three ways to defend from getting trapped is simply to refuse a favor in first place, to see the favor for what is worth meaning that if it was a small favor then that is as it should be re payed and lastly to learn to tell if the first favor was done in good faith. (citation)

In public good experiments, behavioral economists have demonstrated that the potential for reciprocal actions by players increases the rate of contribution to the public good, providing evidence for the importance of reciprocity in social situations.

In the animal world reciprocity exists in the social behaviour of Baboons. Male Baboons will form alliances with one another in order that one baboon will distract the Alpha-male, who has monopolized reproductive females, and the other will copulate with a female. The roles will be reversed later for "payback".

It may be a motivation for returning favors from others. A form of reciprocity is "reciprocal concessions," in which the requester lowers his/her initial request, making the respondent more likely to agree to a second request. The respondent agrees because the requester has lowered his/her request, making a concession to the respondent. The respondent then experiences the social obligation to make a concession in kind back to the requester, and thus agrees to the second, lower request leaving the respondent feel like he/she has won because he/she has managed to get the requester to back down from the first impossible task.