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Whether it's a free upgrade on a hotel room or skipping ahead in the check-in line, many businesses give preferential treatment to some customers, hoping to make them more loyal. The practice often works — but a new study suggests that when we get perks we didn't earn, negative feelings can result. And they can make a surprise deal a little less sweet.

That's the gist of a study to be published later this year in the Journal of Consumer Research, with the forthright title "Consumer Reaction to Unearned Preferential Treatment."

"The current research demonstrates that, although receiving unearned preferential treatment does generate positive reactions, it is not always an entirely pleasurable experience," write the study's authors, Lan Jiang, Joandrea Hoegg, and Darren W. Dahl.

The displeasing aspects of a treat tend to peak, they write, when the perks are given in public, in front of other customers who are no different than the recipient of the business's generosity.

"We propose that receiving something that others have just as much right to receive can activate concerns about negative evaluations, reducing the satisfaction with the preferential treatment," write the researchers, who teach marketing at business schools at the University of Oregon and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

The study's authors found that "satisfaction with receiving preferential treatment can be restored if the observer who does not receive such treatment reacts positively to the recipient's good fortune or if the observer is of a higher status than the recipient."

That's right. The test subjects enjoyed "the positive experience of 'beating' a superior'" so much, the authors say, that it brought "increased overall satisfaction."

It also helps if nobody's looking. To test that theory, the researchers conducted experiments to test "feelings of social discomfort" and try to determine where they come from. They found that even in the most seemingly fair context — a random drawing — the winner felt best about it if they were alone.

All of the tests placed participants in situations in which one person received a surprise bonus. In one case, a booth that was dispensing free product samples suddenly gave one subject more than the others. That was welcomed — especially if no one else was around.

"It's like they wanted to get out of there," co-author JoAndrea Hoegg tells The Globe and Mail. "It's the fear of negative evaluation. If you're getting something you don't deserve, you're thrilled – as long as no one is watching you."

All of this isn't meant to imply that businesses should stop giving people free perks, the researchers say. The trick is to be sure all customers know the deal — and why they're not getting it. Other options include using scratch-off game tabs and loyalty emails, which can be kept private, to connect with customers.

Such steps, they say, "would minimize the potential for negative emotions."

Earlier this year, the U.S. government accused China's military of running a massive cyberspying campaign to steal business secrets from American companies.

"We've made it very clear to China and some other state actors that, you know, we expect them to follow international norms and abide by international rules," President Obama told ABC News in March.

Last week, Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of the agency's surveillance programs, told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper that the NSA had hacked civilian computers in the Chinese territory and the mainland over a period of four years. After months of criticism from the U.S., China's government finally had a weapon of its own.

"It's Christmas in June in Beijing and Snowden is Santa Claus," says Bill Bishop, who writes Sinocism, a popular daily news digest on China. "If you look at the reactions of the Chinese government over the last few months or a year, specifically to all the allegations of hacking coming out of China, China will say, 'We're a victim, too. We are one of, if not the biggest victim of hacking in the world.' So, now, these revelations come out and they can say, 'See? We were telling the truth.'"

There is a distinction in the hacking allegations. China's government is accused of mass spying on U.S. companies for economic advantage. The U.S. is accused of hoovering up huge amounts of private information at home and abroad for what it says is an effort to find terrorists. China's state-run media has glossed over that nuance, and gone for the jugular.

Bishop cites two recent cartoons here.

"One depicted the Statue of Liberty, but her shadow was a secret agent with several eavesdropping devices," he says. "And another was a rat dressed as the Statue of Liberty, pulling off the cover of a computer and the cover was a Chinese flag."

Patrick Xu, an associate professor at Communication University of China in Beijing, says the U.S. has "damaged its reputation."

In a column for the government news portal China.org, he compared Snowden to Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and said China should grant him asylum. Xu says speeches by American officials criticizing China for Internet prying now ring hollow.

"It turns out this was a rather big lie," he says.

How much all of this resonates with ordinary Chinese is questionable. On Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, Snowden did not even make Tuesday top 10 topics. No. 1 was a Chinese movie star who recently put on a lot of weight. And when NPR spoke to 13 people in Shanghai on Tuesday, only three had even heard of Snowden.

One was a doctor who only gave his English name, "John," because he thinks the topic is sensitive to the government.

John thought Snowden was gutsy.

"At least he let the public know potential security risks," he said, speaking in Chinese. "Our privacy can be easily exposed by others. It feels like you are stripped naked."

John, who was sipping coffee at a Burger King, said the NSA revelations didn't change his view of the U.S. He thinks most countries do the same thing. John lives in far western China where ethnic Uighur people are at odds with the government in Beijing.

"I am from Xinjiang and we experienced big ethnic riots in 2009," he says. "Lots of information was blocked. The Internet was cut off" for 10 months.

As Chinese state media has criticized the U.S., Chinese officials have kept quiet.

Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong, says that's smart.

"Now, that China has enjoyed this accidental publicity coup, certainly China has no intention to further embarrass the Obama administration, which may well lead to a deterioration in the bilateral relationship," he says.

The two countries held a presidential summit earlier this month in California to improve ties. Right now, it serves neither side to make them worse.

They are young, they are angry and they have drawn inspiration from protest movements a world away in places like Turkey and the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets Monday night across the country and more demonstrations are slated for the coming week. Brazil doesn't have a history of this kind of mass dissent, but it seems to be catching on very quickly.

"The social movements in the world are learning from each other," said Marco Antnio Carvalho Teixeira, a professor at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo. "This is a brand new way of protesting in Brazil."

The Brazilian protesters have a lot in common with their Turkish counterparts: They are leaderless, the message is a bit fuzzy, the growth of the movement has been organic and organized on social media.

And like Turkey, Brazil is also a vibrant democracy and a growing global power.

Unlike the protesters in the Arab Spring, Brazilians can take their grievances to the ballot box.

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Mass Anti-Government Protests Swell In Brazil

Mike: It's like Burger Jenga.

Ian: It's so tall, I got two patties in my mouth and one of the top patties hit me in the eye. I like a burger that requires protective eyewear.

Eva: I just scraped ketchup off my forehead.

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