Conflict, Identity, and Trust: Experimental Evidence of Trust Erosion and Restoration in Post-Conflict Setting

Duc Manh Nguyen
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Duc Manh Nguyen: Monash University

Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers from Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers

Abstract: This study investigates how the experience of conflict and the framing of post-conflict identity affect trust. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment in Vietnam, implemented shortly after the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, 534 partici- pants were randomly assigned to either a treatment group that engaged in a multi-round competitive game intended to simulate conflict (called the “Attacker/Defender†game) (Gross et al., 2022) before playing the Trust game under four identity framings: paired with someone from the opposing group of the conflict, the same group, with no information about partner’s prior group, or with a new, neutral group identity designed to symbolically represent an absence of relation with conflict, or a control group which only take part in the Trust Game. We find that playing the Attacker/Defender game (i.e., being exposed to conflict in the lab) lowers trust by 13–21%, regardless of which side participants were in the conflict.

Keywords: Trust; Intergroup Conflict; Identity Framing; Laboratory Experiment JEL classifications: D91; Z13; D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-soc and nep-spo
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:94

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