ArticleOriginal scientific text

Title

Belief in others’ trustworthiness and trusting behaviour

Authors 1, 1, 2, 1

Affiliations

  1. Centre for Economic Psychology and Decision Sciences, Kozminski University
  2. Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Data from surveys indicate that people, in general, do not trust others. On the other hand, in one-shot trust games, where the player decides whether to send money to an anonymous partner, the actual rate of trust is relatively high. In two experiments, we showed that although reciprocity expectations and profit maximization matter, they are not decisive for trusting behaviour. Crucial factors that motivate behaviour in trust games seem to be altruism and a type of moral obligation related to a social norm encouraging cooperative behaviour. Finally, we were able to divide participants into specific profiles based on amount of money transferred to the partner, altruistic motivation, and belief in partners’ trustworthiness. This shows that the trust game is differently perceived and interpreted by different participants.

Keywords

trust, trust game, beliefs, altruism, compromise effect
Pages:
43-51
Main language of publication
English
Published
2014
Social sciences