(I don't think that these civics exercises are in any way empty, especially when they involve reciprocity as well as donation.
However, in iterated PD games strategies involving reciprocity or reputation can help stabilize cooperation [ 5, 6].
Social contracts are clearly symbolic rather than conventional, legal contracts involving reciprocity, mutual consent, terms and conditions [ 10].
Language may have evolved from manual gestures, and then gradually incorporated vocal elements, so that language involves reciprocity in the actions of partners (Corballis, 2003).
While the rhetoric of partnership tends to emphasise a strong version which involves reciprocity, policy dialogue and meeting commitments, a weak version implies that decision making processes constantly come under the review of donors, undermining the aim of country ownership [ 33].
Recent empirical evidence show that humans typically follow complex assessment strategies involving both reciprocity and social imitation when making cooperative decisions.
In our imitation-reciprocity (IR) model, we consider individuals faced with a social dilemma [1], [9], [34], [35], who follow cooperative or altruistic strategies involving both reciprocity and imitation mechanisms [24], [27], [28].
After all, explanations involving relatedness, reciprocity and group selection all look rather different.
When 'making oneself' in relation to others, intentional initiation and reciprocity is involved.
