Gifts are frequently given as part of a effort to influence somebody, often at the expense of a third party. It's unfortunate, but true, especially when it comes to business gifts from firms and lobbyists.
A new paper from Ulrike Malmendier and Klaus M. Schmidt of the University of Munich takes a closer look at this darker side of the holiday season.
It turns out that even when people are well aware that a gift is meant to influence them, there is still a powerful trigger to give something back through future behavior or preference.
The authors write:
"In a series of experiments, we show that, even without incentive or informational effects, small gifts strongly influence the recipient’s behavior in favor of the gift giver, in particular when a third party bears the cost. Subjects are well aware that the gift is given to influence their behavior but reciprocate nevertheless.
... a gift triggers an obligation to repay the gift, independently of the intentions of the gift giver and the distributional consequences. The gift seems to create a special bond between the giver and the recipient, in line with a large anthropological literature documenting that gifts create obligations. Similarly, sociologists argue that many forms of social exchange are based on a universal social norm that gifts have to be reciprocated."
The relative size, intent, and context of the gift doesn't matter all that much. This is a problem for governments and businesses seeking to reduce outside influence and conflicts of interest. Disclosure rules and size limits don't make much of a difference.
When trying to make an impartial decision between to alternatives, it's important to be aware of this effect. Everyday social interactions have all sorts of small gifts, a meal, a drink, and so on. Whether we're aware of it or not, we tend to pay back those small gifts in the future.
Read the full paper here
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