Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2014
  • Article
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity and the Limits of Generosity

By: Kurt Gray, Adrian F. Ward and Michael I. Norton
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

When people are the victims of greed or recipients of generosity, their first impulse is often to pay back that behavior in kind. What happens when people cannot reciprocate, but instead have the chance to be cruel or kind to someone entirely different—to pay it forward? In five experiments, participants received greedy, equal, or generous divisions of money or labor from an anonymous person, and then divided additional resources with a new anonymous person. While equal treatment was paid forward in kind, greed was paid forward more than generosity. This asymmetry was driven by negative affect, such that a positive affect intervention disrupted the tendency to pay greed forward. Implications for models of generalized reciprocity are discussed.

Keywords

Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Situation Or Environment; Attitudes

Citation

Gray, Kurt, Adrian F. Ward, and Michael I. Norton. "Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity and the Limits of Generosity." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, no. 1 (February 2014): 247–254.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt

    By: Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton
    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Work Values Shape the Relationship Between Stress and (Un)Happiness

    By: George Ward, Hanne Collins, Michael I. Norton and Ashley V. Whillans
    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Consumers Punish Firms that Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19

    By: Bhavya Mohan, Serena Hagerty and Michael Norton
More from the Authors
  • 'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt By: Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance and Michael I. Norton
  • Work Values Shape the Relationship Between Stress and (Un)Happiness By: George Ward, Hanne Collins, Michael I. Norton and Ashley V. Whillans
  • Consumers Punish Firms that Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19 By: Bhavya Mohan, Serena Hagerty and Michael Norton
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College