The Benjamin Franklin Effect
People tend to like you more after doing you a favor, not less. One detail matters: the effect showed up only when the person was asked directly.
The Benjamin Franklin Effect is the finding that people come to like you more after doing you a favor. Franklin described it himself. He won over a hostile rival in the Pennsylvania legislature by asking to borrow a rare book from the man's library.
In 1969 Jon Jecker and David Landy tested it. Students won money in a contest, then some were asked to give it back. Those asked personally by the researcher later liked him the most. Those asked by a department secretary liked him the least.
The evidence is thinner than the fame: small samples, mostly students. But in 2016 Yu Niiya found the same pattern in Japanese and American participants, with one sharp detail. Helping raised liking only when the person was asked directly. Helping without a request did nothing.
A direct ask carries a message: I value what you know. People then read their own help as a sign that they like you.
The nudge: Pick the quietest person on your team and ask for help with something real and small: a second read on a draft, their take on a decision you haven't made yet. Ask them yourself, not through someone else.
Source: Niiya, Does a Favor Request Increase Liking Toward the Requester?, The Journal of Social Psychology (2016); Jecker & Landy, Liking a Person as a Function of Doing Him a Favour, Human Relations (1969)
