After returning a favor, what happens to gratitude and the feeling that you owe someone?

Details

The research examined whether gratitude and the feeling of needing to repay someone change differently after a favor is returned, and how those feelings relate to further helping.

In Study 1, 106 participants played an online game that measured helping behavior. After an opportunity to return a favor, gratitude toward the helper remained elevated, while the feeling of owing that person declined along with helping. The feeling of owing someone predicted helping better than gratitude did.

Study 2 used an experiment with 217 participants responding to written scenarios. After a favor was returned, the feeling of owing the helper and the likelihood of helping returned to the reference levels used for comparison, while gratitude persisted. The decline in helping was better explained by the feeling of owing someone than by gratitude.

Study 3, with 217 participants, compared contexts with different emotional profiles. One example was having received a service but not yet paid for it: the feeling of owing was elevated, while gratitude was at the reference level. Another was having returned a friend’s freely given favor: gratitude was elevated, while the feeling of owing was at the reference level. Helping was more likely in the first kind of context, and this difference was better explained by the feeling of owing than by gratitude.

Together, the findings suggest that gratitude can outlast the felt need to repay, without helping staying at the same level. However, Study 3 compared different social contexts, not just different feelings. Responses to written scenarios also do not establish how people would behave in everyday life. The abstract does not report effect sizes or participant demographics.