The norm of reciprocity suggests that compliance is more likely when the requester has previously granted a favor.

• A. The belief that people always comply with requests.
• B. The principle that people will respond to kindness with a return of favors when a favor has been granted.
• C. The tendency to avoid helping others.
• D. The principle that people must always be rewarded.

Answer: (B)

This item tests the norm of reciprocity, the social expectation that kindness or favors create an obligation to return the act. When someone has previously granted you a favor, you often feel indebted and want to repay that kindness, which makes you more likely to comply with a later request from that same person. This dynamic is exactly what the statement describes: compliance rises because the requester has already done a favor, triggering a repayment impulse.

Others don’t fit because they describe different ideas. Believing people always comply overgeneralizes behavior beyond reciprocity. A tendency to avoid helping is the opposite of what reciprocity predicts. The notion that people must always be rewarded shifts the focus to external incentives rather than the repayment of a prior favor.