Trust as a social norm? A lab-in-the-field experiment with refugees in Switzerland

Stefanie S. Baumgartner (), Fabio Galeotti (), Thierry Madiès () and Marie Claire Villeval ()
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Stefanie S. Baumgartner: University of Fribourg, Bd de Pérolles 90 CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
Fabio Galeotti: CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Emlyon business school, Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Etienne, GATE, 35 rue Raulin, 69007-Lyon, France
Thierry Madiès: University of Fribourg, Bd de Pérolles 90 CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
Marie Claire Villeval: CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Emlyon business school, Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Etienne, GATE, 35 rue Raulin, 69007-Lyon, France; IZA, Bonn, Germany

No 2508, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: Trust plays a crucial role in refugees’ integration. This study examines how social information about trust levels among peers from home and host countries affects non-Western refugees’ trust. Using a trust game, we measured experimentally trust levels among Swiss citizens, Turkish refugees, and Afghan refugees. We found that Turkish refugees exhibited higher trust levels than Afghan refugees, but no significant trust differences were found between Swiss participants and either refugee group. Turkish refugees adjusted their trust to match Swiss levels when receiving social information, but observation by compatriots reduced this effect. By contrast, Afghan refugees exhibited a more limited response to social information, except when told their behavior would be revealed, which led them to align more closely with Swiss trust levels. These findings highlight the complex impact of social information on refugee trust behavior and suggest that trust can be a social norm.

Keywords: Refugees; trust; social information; lab-in-the-field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D83 D91 F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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