Our life is full of rules, sometimes therewe let them guide them, other times we don't. But did we ever dwell on
think about the differences between the norms of social behavior and those that
do they regulate the market? For example, we ask a friend to help us do
moving house. After spending some time moving furniture and various objects, I laughed
together and joked, when everything is over and the friend is ready to leave
we reach out to our wallet and ask him when we owe him. At this point, the fun and relaxed environment is
transforms and silence falls. The friend first shows a surprised face, then yes
shows annoyed at the offer which he considers a disrespect for friendship
and finally he tells us that we owe him nothing and leaves feeling uneasy. What happened? We have violated the rules of
social behavior but we acted in accordance with those of the market, second
which we would have to pay for every service rendered. The point lies in the fact that normally, relationships
social issues do not involve economic retribution, and many feel offended
when this is offered to him. A curious experiment demonstrated the power of
rules of social behavior and compromise. On this occasion I am
a group of students were involved and asked to perform a
simple task: on the computer screen appeared a circle that had to
be moved inside a square. The task had to be repeated many more
times as possible for five minutes. The interesting part was that the researchers
divided the volunteers into three subgroups, one of them was told that
they would pay $ 5, the other $ 0,50 and the third was asked to
as a favor without any pay. After the test it was found that whoever received 5
dollars made 159 trips while those who received only 0.50 cents
he only made 101. The difference was obviously motivated by the amount of
money up for grabs. But… what happened with those who had to accomplish the task
like it's a favor? They made an average of 168 movements! Well, something similar happened to American
Association of Retired Persons. This association asked a study of
lawyers who would help pensioners and who would be paid for it 30
dollars an hour. The lawyers refused. Then the association asked that
they helped the pensioners for free, and they accepted. Because? Simply because if lawyers had
applied the rules of the market, the 30 dollars would not have been a price
adequate to the service. However, when referring to the social rules of
behavior changes everything, because it does not refer to money but rather
to compromise with a principle or a person. The same is true for everyone
we. Of course, between the rules of social behavior and
there must always be a certain equilibrium of the market. We must not take advantage
friends and, when they have done a lot for us, perhaps the most appropriate thing is
reward them with a gift.
