Quid pro quo: The effect of individuals' exchange orientation on prosocial behavior and the moderating role of mortality salience

Individuals high in exchange orientation expect immediate and comparable rewards in order to establish exchange equality after they have provided rewards for others. Therefore, such individuals should be less likely than individuals low in exchange orientation to behave prosocially because doing such usually leads to exchange inequality (i.e., postponement of reciprocal expectations). However, research on terror management theory has indicated that an adherence to prosocial norms increases after mortality salience, especially in situations where those norms are prescribed and cognitively focused. Based on this, we predicted and found evidence that when participants who were high (vs. low) in exchange orientation were directly asked in a face-to-face interaction to donate their participation payment to a charity, they were less likely to donate unless they had first been reminded of their own death.