Decomposing trust and trustworthiness

Nava Ashraf, Iris Bohnet and Nikita Piankov

Experimental Economics, 2006, vol. 9, issue 3, pages 193-208

Abstract: What motivates people to trust and be trustworthy? Is trust solely “calculative,†based on the expectation of trustworthiness, and trustworthiness only reciprocity? Employing a within-subject design, we run investment and dictator game experiments in Russia, South Africa and the United States. Additionally, we measured risk preferences and expectations of return. Expectations of return account for most of the variance in trust, but unconditional kindness also matters. Variance in trustworthiness is mainly accounted for by unconditional kindness, while reciprocity plays a comparatively small role. There exists some heterogeneity in motivation but people behave surprisingly similarly in the three countries studied. Copyright Economic Science Association 2006

Keywords: Trust; Reciprocity; Social preferences; Cross-cultural experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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