The passage is mainly about

how the urge to return favors shapes behavior and can be used to persuade (The passage explains reciprocity and how it can be used as a persuasion tool.)

What defense against this tactic does the passage suggest?

Recognizing a manipulative gift as a tactic and feeling no debt (The text says you can receive such a gift as a sales tactic rather than kindness and feel no debt.)

According to the passage, must a favor be large to create a sense of debt?

No, even a small, unwanted favor can create the feeling (The passage says the favor need not be large and we need not even have wanted it.)

In this passage, "indebted" most nearly means:

owing something in return (The "discomfort of feeling indebted" is the sense of owing something back after receiving a favor, which is what nudges us to say yes.)

The Pull of a Favor: Level 3 Reading Comprehension Questions

Across nearly every culture, people feel an urge to return a favor. When someone gives us something, even something small and unrequested, a quiet pressure builds to give something back. This rule of reciprocity helped early communities cooperate and share, and it runs so deep that we often obey it without noticing.

Because the urge is automatic, it can be used as a tool of persuasion. A free sample, an unexpected gift, a small concession in an argument: each can plant a sense of debt that makes us more willing to say yes afterward. The favor need not be large, and we need not even have wanted it. The discomfort of feeling indebted is enough to nudge our behavior.

Knowing this does not make the urge vanish, but it offers a defense. When a gift seems designed to obligate you, you are free to receive it as what it is, a sales tactic rather than a true kindness, and to feel no debt at all.

Comprehension questions