Retaliation design pattern

72% of 20 votes liked this

Alternate titles: Revenge.

Problem summary

People repay in kind

Usage

Use when revenge can be encouraged to enforce positive and playful play; to beat friends in games or challenges.
Do not use when the act of revenge will end in a combative feud where only one winner remains with a joyful memory

This card is part of the Persuasive Patterns printed card deck

The Persuasive Patterns Card Deck is a collection of 60 design patterns driven by psychology, presented in a manner easily referenced and used as a brainstorming tool.

Get your deck!

Solution

Give before you ask. Demonstrate the value you have to offer before asking users to convert into paying customers. Asking too early can backfire into bad reputation. Start by giving before taking in order to get users to reciprocate.
Build a relationship first. Asking before providing trust in your intentions can create suspicion and make users reluctant to cooperate.
Don’t be evil. The negative emotional value of a transactional loss of $100 is at least twice as much as the positive emotional value of a $100 gain. Acts of retaliation also tend to be equally larger than acts of positively giving back.

Rationale

If we feel we have been treated unfairly, we have an urge to want everyone else to know what that person did to us. Loss Aversion plays into this, as we perceive the value of a loss much greater than we do with gains and thus reciprocate more with anger than with joy.

Sources

Retaliation is negative reciprocity. Fehr and Gächter showed that, when acting within reciprocal frameworks, individuals are more likely to deviate from purely self-interested behavior than when acting in other social contexts. Treachery is often repaid with disproportionate amounts of hostility and vengeance.

¹ Fehr and Gächter (2000). “Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity”. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 14 (3): 159–182.