A recent study in the field of neuroscience showed that a class of symbolic resources (praise) activated the brain’s reward circuitry, which was similarly activated by monetary resources. This result implies that the two distinct classes of resources are mutually exchangeable. The present experiment addressed this possibility by comparing four conditions. Participants in the praise condition received a positive evaluation and decided how much money they would give to the evaluator, while participants in the no praise condition did not receive any evaluation. To distinguish the effect of praise from positive mood effect, participants in the positive mood condition decided how much money they would give to someone other than the evaluator. To explore the differential effects of praise and flattery, participants in the flattery condition were led to suspect the intention of the evaluator. Participants in the praise condition behaved more generously than those in the other three conditions.
AndersonN. H. (1968). Likableness ratings of 555 personality-trait words. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 272–279. doi: 10.1037/h0025907
2.
BeckmanC. W.SecordP. F. (1959). The effect of perceived liking on interpersonal attraction. Human Relations, 12, 379–384. doi: 10.1177/001872675901200407
3.
BergJ. H.ArcherR. L. (1982). Responses to self-disclosure and interaction goals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 501–512. doi: 10.1016/0022–1031(82)90069–5
4.
BoushD. M.FriestadM.WrightP. (2009). Deception in the marketplace: The psychology of deceptive persuasion and consumer self protection. New York, NY: Routledge.
5.
BurgerJ. M.EhrlichmanA.RaymondN. C.IshikawaJ. M.SandovalJ. (2006). Reciprocal favor exchange and compliance. Social Influence, 1, 169–184. doi: 10.1080/15534510600819693
6.
BurgerJ. M.SanchezJ.ImberiJ. E.GrandeL. R. (2009). The norm of reciprocity as an internalized social norm: Returning favors even when no one finds out. Social Influence, 4, 11–17. doi: 10.1080/15534510802131004
7.
CamererC. F. (2003). Behavioral game theory: Experiments in strategic interaction. New York, NY: Sage.
8.
CarlsonM.CharlinV.MillerN. (1988). Positive mood and helping behavior: A test of six hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 211–229. doi: 10.1037/0022–3514.55.2.211
9.
DeStenoD.BartlessM. Y.BaumannJ.WilliamsL. A.DickensL. (2010). Gratitude as moral sentiment: Emotion-guided cooperation in economic exchange. Emotion, 10, 289–293. doi: 10.1037/a0017883
10.
FoaE. B.FoaU. G. (1980). Resource theory: Interpersonal behavior as exchange. In GergenK. J.GreenbergM. S.WillisR. H. (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 77–97). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
11.
FoggB. J.NassC. (1997). Silicon sycophants: The effects of computers that flatter. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 46, 551–561. doi: 10.1006/ijhc.1996.0104
12.
FuG.LeeK. (2007). Social grooming in the kindergarten: The emergence of flattery behavior. Developmental Science, 10, 255–265. doi: 10.1111/j.1467–7687.2007.00583.x
13.
GouldnerA. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161–178.
14.
GrantA. M.GinoF. (2010). A little tanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 946–955. doi: 10.1037/a0017935
15.
HenderlongJ.LepperM. R. (2002). The effects of praise on children’s intrinsic motivation: A review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 774–795. doi: 10.1037//0033–2909.128.5.774
16.
IsenA. M.ClarkM.SchwartzM. F. (1976). Duration of the effect of good mood on helping: “Footprints on the sands of time.”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 385–393. doi: 10.1037/0022–3514.34.3.385
17.
IsenA. M.LevinP. F. (1972). Effect of feeling good on helping: Cookies and kindness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21, 384–388. doi: 10.1037/h0032317
18.
IzumaK.SaitoD. N.SadatoN. (2008). Processing of social and monetary rewards in the human striatum. Neuron, 58, 284–294. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.03.020
19.
JonesE. E.JonesR. G.GergenK. J. (1963). Some conditions affecting the evaluation of a conformist. Journal of Personality, 31, 270–288. doi: 10.1111/j.1467–6494.1963.tb01855.x
20.
JonesE. E.PittmanT. S. (1982). Toward a general theory of strategic self-presentation. In SulsJ. (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. Vol. 1, pp. 231–262). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
21.
KipnisD.VanderveerR. (1971). Ingratiation and the use of power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 280–286. doi: 10.1037/h0030587
22.
LachmannM.SzámadóS.BergstromC. T. (2001). Cost and conflict in animal signals and human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 98, 13189–13194. doi: 10.1073/pnas.231216498
23.
LeeE. (2009). I like you, but I won’t listen to you: Effects of rationality on affective and behavioral responses to computers than flatter. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 67, 628–638.
24.
LoweC. A.GoldsteinJ. W. (1970). Reciprocal liking and attributions of ability: Mediating effects of perceived intent and personal involvement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 291–297. doi: 10.1037/h0029853
25.
MatsumuraA.OhtsuboY. (2009, May). Flattery makes us feel good. Poster session presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Fullerton, CA.
26.
McCulloughM. E.KilpatrickS. D.EmmonsR. A.LarsonD. B. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect?Psychological Bulletin, 127, 249–266. doi: 10.1037//0033-2909.127.2.249.
27.
MillerL. C.KennyD. A. (1986). Reciprocity of self-disclosure at the individual and dyadic levels: A social relations analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 713–719. doi: 10.1037/0022–3514.50.4.713
28.
MontoyaR. M.InskoC. A. (2008). Toward a more complete understanding of the reciprocity of liking effect. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 477–498. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.431
29.
OhtsuboY.MasudaF.WatanabeE.MasuchiA. (2010). Dishonesty invites costly third-party punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 259–264. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.12.007
30.
ReganD. T. (1971). Effects of a favor and liking on compliance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 627–639. doi: 10.1016/0022–1031(71)90025–4
31.
SchulY. (2004). Coping with invalid messages by increasing or decreasing processing complexity. In HaddockG.MaioG. R. O. (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on the psychology of attitudes (pp. 227–249). London, England: Psychology Press.
32.
SmithV. L.WalkerJ. M. (1993). Monetary rewards and decision cost in experimental economics. Economic Inquiry, 31, 245–261. doi: 10.1111/j.1465–7295.1993.tb00881.x
33.
TsangJ. (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behaviour: An experimental test of gratitude. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 138–148. doi:10.1080/02699930500172341
34.
VonkR. (1998). The slime effect: Suspicion and dislike of likeable behavior toward superiors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 849–864. doi: 10.1037/0022–3514.74.4.849
35.
VonkR. (2002). Self-serving interpretation of flattery: Why ingratiation works. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 515–526. doi: 10.1037//0022–3514.82.4.515
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
