myHIN Blog

February 27, 2013

Reciprocity: Its Role in Health & MyHealthImpact

According to social psychologists, reciprocity refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action. Reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest or self-serving mode of thinking. Positive (creating a win-win) or negative (creating a sense of burdensome obligation) reciprocity leads to what social psychologists call cooperative reciprocal tendencies while the negative can result in undesirable behaviors.

Scholars, Mallory and Holditch, conducted a study of African-American HIV-positive women and reported the importance of their relationships with researchers, in which the women received benefits while also providing a service to the researchers. Hence, reciprocity between research teams and participants proved significant in retaining African-American women in research. Other scholars, Chandola, Marmot and Siegrist, found that relationships characterized by mutual exchange of support are associated with positive feedback, and with better mental and physical health outcomes. Failed reciprocity leads to negative consequences, such as distrust, stigma, misaligned or false expectations, etc. In this case, typical responses in the relationships are “I am sorry” or “I was about to”. An important to note is that “sorry” does not undo what has been done, or correct what has not been done but expected. Recently, a dear friend of mine spoke the phrases central to this theme: burning a bridge; biting the hand that feeds you; failed communication.

MyHealthImpact is a network of relationships. A few terms to remember in this network effort are relationship building, voice, engagement of a generation and dialogue for an AIDS-Free Generation. Similar keywords to note in this effort include:

Quid pro quo – ("this for that" in Latin) most often means a more-or-less equal exchange
Pay It Forward

Tell us about one of your reciprocity experience by commenting on this blog. Send us a tweet @myhealthimpact.

References:
1)   Mallory C, Miles MS, Holditch-Davis D., Reciprocity and retaining African-American women with HIV in research. Applied Nursing Research. 2002 Feb;15(1):35-41.
2)   Chandola T, Marmot M, Siegrist J. Failed reciprocity in close social relationships and health: findings from the Whitehall II study. J Psychosom Res. 2007;63(4):403–411.
3)    Wiki - Reciprocity (Social Psychology)