Jerry M. Burger

Who they are

Santa Clara University is the affiliation given on both papers. This page records only what the papers and their published records state. Biography beyond the cited work is not given here.

Key papers

Effects of time on the norm of reciprocity (1997), with Horita, Kinoshita, Roberts and Vera. In the first experiment, 97 undergraduates received a free soft drink from a confederate posing as a fellow participant, who later asked them to deliver an envelope across campus. When the request came about five minutes after the drink, 93.8 per cent agreed. When it came a week later, 75.8 per cent agreed, which did not differ reliably from the 65.6 per cent who agreed after receiving no drink. In a second experiment using hypothetical scenarios, people said they would feel less bound to return a favour as time passed. The authors concluded that the norm "does not mandate an open-ended obligation to return a favor."

Reciprocal favor exchange and compliance (2006), with Ehrlichman, Raymond, Ishikawa and Sandoval. Across three experiments, a brief exchange of small favours with a stranger made people more likely to agree to a later request. The authors suggested that such an exchange may trigger a friendship heuristic, a rule of thumb for how to treat a friend.

Key ideas

Burger's work sets limits on the reciprocity principle. The obligation created by a small favour appears to be short-lived, and part of what a favour does may be to make a stranger feel briefly like a friend. Both points matter for free samples and gifts in shops, where the chance to repay may come minutes or weeks after the gift.

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