REPRESENTATIVE TRUST AND RECIPROCITY: PREVALENCE AND DETERMINANTS

Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk, David Huffman and Uwe Sunde

Economic Inquiry, 2008, vol. 46, issue 1, 84-90

Abstract: This paper provides evidence about the determinants of trust and reciprocal inclinations, that is, a tendency for people to respond in kind to hostile or kind actions, in a representative setting. We investigate the prevalence of reciprocity in the population, the correlation between trust and positive and negative reciprocal inclinations within person, the individual determinants of reciprocity, and the relationship with psychological measures of personality. We find that most people state reciprocal inclinations, in particular in terms of positive reciprocity, as well as substantial heterogeneity in the degree of trust and reciprocity. Trust and positive reciprocity are only weakly correlated, while trust and negative reciprocity exhibit a negative correlation. In terms of determinants, being female and increasing age are associated with stronger positive and weaker negative reciprocal tendencies. Taller people are more positively reciprocal, but height has no impact on negative reciprocity. Psychological traits also affect trust and reciprocity. (JEL D63, J3, J6)

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (178)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2007.00082.x

Related works:
Working Paper: Representative trust and reciprocity: Prevalence and determinants (2008)
Working Paper: Representative trust and reciprocity: Prevalence and determenants (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:46:y:2008:i:1:p:84-90

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... s.aspx?ref=1465-7295

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Tim Salmon

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().