Imagine you’re playing a game with your friends, taking turns proposing offers and deciding whether to accept or reject them. But here’s the twist: your expectations of fairness are not just based on what you’ve seen others do, but also on how you behave yourself! This is the fascinating insight from a series of studies that investigated social expectations. The researchers found that people evaluate others’ actions by comparing them to their own decisions, driven by a desire for reciprocity. In other words, your evaluation of someone’s fairness in offering you something depends on whether you believe it is fair compared to what you would have offered in their place. These findings were replicated across different games and even in different cultures, emphasizing the universality of reciprocity in shaping social expectations. The research also showed that people are more accepting of selfish behavior if they themselves have engaged in selfishness, revealing the strong influence of personal experiences on social evaluations. The implications of this research go beyond just understanding how we form expectations; it sheds light on the mechanisms underlying decision-making and provides insights into fostering cooperation in various contexts. If you’re intrigued, dive into the full article to explore the exciting world of reciprocal social expectations!

Abstract
Social expectations guide people’s evaluations of others’ behaviors, but the origins of these expectations remain unclear. It is traditionally thought that people’s expectations depend on their past observations of others’ behavior, and people harshly judge atypical behavior. Here, we considered that social expectations are also influenced by a drive for reciprocity, and people evaluate others’ actions by reflecting on their own decisions. To compare these views, we performed four studies. Study 1 used an Ultimatum Game task where participants alternated Responder and Proposer roles. Modeling participants’ expectations suggested they evaluated the fairness of received offers via comparisons to their own offers. Study 2 replicated these findings and showed that observing selfish behavior (lowball offers) only promoted acceptance of selfishness if observers started acting selfishly themselves. Study 3 generalized the findings, demonstrating that they also arise in the Public Goods Game, emerge cross-culturally, and apply to antisocial punishment whereby selfish players punish generosity. Finally, Study 4 introduced the Trust Game and showed that participants trusted players who reciprocated their behavior, even if it was selfish, as much as they trusted generous players. Overall, this research shows that social expectations and evaluations are rooted in drives for reciprocity. This carries theoretical implications, speaking to a parallel in the mechanisms driving both decision-making and social evaluations, along with practical importance for understanding and promoting cooperation.

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