 Unpacking the relevance of interpersonal trust in the blockchain era: Theory and experimental evidenceĐorđe Milosav and Marina Nistotskaya Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 2024, vol. 42, issue C Abstract: Despite being proclaimed a “trust-free” technology, the link between blockchain and interpersonal trust remains understudied. By considering one of the most prominent use-cases of blockchain - smart contracts, we argue that the non-punitive nature of smart contracts may facilitate trustworthy behavior in human interaction by encouraging trustees to view themselves as internally motivated cooperators and to honor the trustor’s move that exceeds the encoded response. We test this argument through an online experiment in which the hallmark property of smart contracts—automated enforcement—is exploited. The results show that trustees in the experimental treatment return ten percentage points more than their counterparts in the trust treatment, thereby exhibiting a more trustworthy behavior. This experimental evidence shows that the presence of blockchain technology does not crowd out all properties of trusting behavior from human interactions. Keywords: Blockchain technology; Interpersonal trust; Reciprocity; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:42:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000169 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100901 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance is currently edited by Michael Dowling and Jürgen Huber More articles in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance from Elsevier |
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