Page 383 - The Social Animal

Liking, Loving, and Interpersonal Sensitivity 365

imosity of a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature, Franklin
set out to win him over.

I did not . . . aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile
respect to him but, after some time, took this other method.
Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and
curious book I wrote a note to him expressing my desire of pe-
rusing that book and requesting he would do me the favour of
lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately and I
returned it in about a week with another note expressing
strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the
House he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and
with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to
serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends and
our friendship continued to his death. This is another instance
of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says,“He that
has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you an-
other than he whom you yourself have obliged.” 19

While Benjamin Franklin was clearly pleased with the success of
his maneuver, as a scientist I am not totally convinced. It is not clear
whether Franklin’s success was due to this strategy or to any one of
the many charming aspects of his personality. To be certain, a well-
controlled experiment is necessary. Some 230 years after Franklin
borrowed the book, just such an experiment was conducted by Jon
Jecker and David Landy. In this experiment, students participated
20
in a concept-formation task that enabled them to win a rather sub-
stantial sum of money. After the experiment was over, one third of
the participants were approached by the experimenter, who ex-
plained that he was using his own funds for the experiment and was
running short, which would mean he might be forced to stop the ex-
periment. He asked, “As a special favor to me, would you mind re-
turning the money you won?” Another one third of the participants
were approached, not by the experimenter, but by the departmental
secretary, who asked them if they would return the money as a spe-
cial favor to the psychology department’s research fund, which was
running low. The remaining participants were not asked to return
their winnings. Finally, all of the participants were asked to fill out a
questionnaire, which included an opportunity to state their feelings
about the experimenter. Those participants who had been cajoled