Rejecting the Reciprocity Rule

The rule of reciprocity says that favors are to be met with favors. But if the initial favor turns out to be a trick, an artifice designed specifically to stimulate our compliance with a larger return favor, that is a different story. To engage in this sort of arrangement with another is not to be exploited by that person through the rule of reciprocation. It is to participate fairly in the honored network of obligation that has served us so well,. both individually and societaly, from the dawn of humanity.