Written by Eduardo Amado | 23 June 2009
Posted in The Friendship Blueprint - Psychology

We're going to have a little chat about giving... We are still studying Cialdini's Six Laws of Influence; this is the time to study Reciprocity.

I know that most of the times we just want to ask for favors and not give anything in return, but after I teach you this rule you'll learn that the best thing you can do is to GIVE your friends favors.

The rule of reciprocation says that we must try to repay what another person has given us.

This is an implicit rule in society, haven’t you ever felt obligated to do a favor for someone because they have helped you sometime in the past? This feeling of indebtedness is exactly what the rule of reciprocation tries to exploit. We are going to use it in order to get ourselves ahead in the social game easily.

Remember my last article, the one that I showed you how to get to meet the social hub?

But what if your boss doesn't want you to introduce you to his boss? What if he doesn't want to invite you to his weekend golf game?
And what if your new non-notorious friend doesn't want to introduce you to the social hub? What if he ignores you when he's with the popular guys?
What should you do in these situations?
You should GIVE! It doesn't need to be a big favor, it just needs to be big enough to be noticed. Then, you're basically free to ask for anything you want and they'll feel indebted to repay your favor!

 

 

 

 

I know, this is slightly on the dark-side of the social manipulation scale. But this technique is extremely effective, and you should be able to use it. I'm not part of the ethical police, but my advice is to use this with good intentions at heart. If you do it the 'right' way, you'll be able to ask for almost anything you want in life! And they'll give it to you!
Because of all of this, you should begin giving favors and gifts TODAY. If your boss likes to drink scotch, buy him a good bottle. If your friend doesn't like math, do his homework. If it is their birthday, write them a card and buy them a small gift.

This will help you climb the social ladder faster than ever!

And there is more, because the truth is that you don't need to give a gift in the same order of magnitude than what you ask. You can give a very small gift and ask for a big one in return. And the fact that fascinates psychologists all around the world is that people will usually comply!
Start giving today!