Hi guys, Karma Police is another cool concept I came across while reading Give and Take by Adam Grant
Actually, the term is coined by another author named Gretchen Rubin.
Gretchen calls Matchers the “Karma Police”.
You guys remember the three types of people right– Takers, Matchers, and Givers.
Takers the selfish breed, Givers the altruistic kind, and Matchers use a balanced approach.
Turns out Matchers care a lot about justice. They use every opportunity to punish Takers for taking undue advantage of others.
A few social scientists believe one of the easiest ways through which people penalize the Takers is by saying foul things to ruin their reputation. These gossips and rumors spread like wildfire, limiting Takers from taking advantage of someone else.
According to another study spearheaded by Kahneman, people were given a choice between splitting $12 evenly with a Taker who had made an unfair proposal in the past or splitting $10 evenly with a Matcher who had made a fair proposal in the past. More than 80 percent of the people preferred to split $10 evenly with the Matcher, accepting $5 rather than $6 to prevent the Taker from getting $6.
Adam believes there’s a flip side of the coin too.
Like punishing Takers for their immoral deeds, the Matchers do everything in their power to help the Givers who assisted them.
He has given solid examples to support his point.
Karma Police is a refreshing take, it’s something that we all must have witnessed.
Have a nice day, will share more insights soon :)