Abstract
Ninety college students were asked to place themselves in the role of a hypothetical help recipient and to answer a series of questions regarding their reactions to the help. Recipients of voluntary help were more glad and rated the donor more positively, but felt less obligation to reciprocate the donor than those of compulsory help. With regard to the type of outcomes, successful helping produced stronger feeling of obligation to reciprocate the donor and greater liking for the donor. In addition, recipients of high cost help felt more depressive and more obligated to reciprocate the donor than recipients of low cost help. These results suggest that activation of the compensatory norm facilitates reciprocation.
