Link Banana

Hyatt Hotels has started to give away seemingly random goodies — a free massage or night’s stay — to guests. The goal of the generosity is to inspire gratitude in the guests which psychologists expect will inspire greater loyalty than traditional points-based loyalty programs.

If a favor seems to be a function of the free will (as opposed to company rules), “you have more desire to reciprocate,” Palmatier says. Hyatt’s strategy of relying on the discretion of on-the-ground employees to provide “acts of generosity” is a pretty fair approximation of the gratitude-creation situation Palmatier says he thinks can pay off.

Tyler Cowen points to some interesting research:

Immediately after one person performs a favor for another, the recipient of the favor places more value on the favor than does the favor-doer.  However, as time passes, the value of the favor decreases in the recipient’s eyes, whereas for the favor-doer, it actually increases.  Although there are several potential reasons for this discrepancy, one possibility is that, as time goes by, the memory of the favor-doing event gets distorted, and since people have the desire to see themselves in the best possible light, receivers may think they didn’t need all that much help at the time, while givers may think they really went out of their way for the receiver.