These statements (#MaC) form part of the Morality as Cooperation Quiz What is morality? Where does it come from, and how does it work? And how and why do moral values vary, between individuals, and across cultures? The theory of ‘morality as cooperation’ (MAC) argues that morality is best understood as a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life. MAC draws on evolutionary game theory to argue that, because there are many types of cooperation, there will be many types of morality. These include: family values, group loyalty, reciprocity, heroism, deference, fairness and property rights. Previous research suggests that these seven types of morality are evolutionarily-ancient, psychologically-distinct, and cross-culturally universal. Take the Quiz to work out what your particular mix looks like.

**Reciprocity if possible is always, always nice, though sometimes the reasons for returning favors aren't totally "pure."** - "If you can" is very important, as it won't always be possible to return a favor. In these cases, it makes sense to consider if there are other ways to return a favor than what you're imagining but don't have the means to do. For instance, can you return the favor by lending an ear to someone when they need it, rather than something that costs resources you don't have? - It's also possible to consider that returning a favor might actually end up reinforcing a norm of reciprocity, thereby cheapening the truer heartfelt nature that some favors can have. The process of immediately returning a favor can reinforce an expected norm of reciprocity to the extent that helping someone who helped you becomes a chore---one which ultimately means there's less meaning behind it. - So the concept of ["giving without expecting in return"](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510802131004) is important, but hopefully people will want to return the favor to you anyway, even if you truly do not expect them to. Then the reciprocity is a cycle that maintains purity; people want to help others not just to ensure they can receive favors, too, but also because they genuinely care about making others feel good. - [Research](https://www.pnas.org/content/115/8/1766.short?rss=1) shows that, at least in charitable giving, "reciprocity decays over time". So there's some evidence that reciprocity is typically an expected norm, if it can fade so easily over time. But even if a large part of it is down to expected norms, I think for the most part returning favors is a meaningful way to care about others, often for their sake only rather than exclusively your own. - Read more about different types of reciprocity and their connections to pro-sociality here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba0504