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An Experimental Analysis of Trust and Trustworthiness

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  • Ananish Chaudhuri
  • Lata Gangadharan

Abstract

We report results from experiments analyzing trust and trustworthiness, which are components of social capital and have an impact on diverse economic phenomena. We conduct a within‐subjects experiment where subjects participate in both the trust game and the dictator game and find that transfers in the trust game are higher and are motivated by expected reciprocation. Subjects in our experiment exhibit positive reciprocity. We find that trustworthiness in the trust game implies trust but not vice versa. Trustworthy subjects are also more generous in the dictator game. Finally we explore gender differences in behavior and find that men are more trusting than women but there are no significant gender differences in reciprocal behavior.

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  • Ananish Chaudhuri & Lata Gangadharan, 2007. "An Experimental Analysis of Trust and Trustworthiness," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 959-985, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:73:y:2007:i:4:p:959-985
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00813.x
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    4. Van Zant, Alex B. & Kray, Laura J., 2013. ""I Can't Lie to Your Face": Minimal Face-to-Face Interaction Promotes Honestry," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt88f3409v, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    5. Tam Kiet Vuong & Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Competing social identities and intergroup discrimination: Evidence from a framed field experiment with high school students in Vietnam," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Tamás Kovács & Marc Willinger, 2010. "Is there a relation between trust and trustworthiness?," Working Papers 10-03, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Mar 2010.
    7. Holden, Stein T. & Tilahun , Mesfin, 2017. "Group Trust in Youth Business Groups: Influenced by Risk Tolerance and Expected Trustworthiness," CLTS Working Papers 13/17, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 21 Oct 2019.
    8. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    9. Gächter, Simon & Nosenzo, Daniele & Renner, Elke & Sefton, Martin, 2008. "Who Makes a Good Leader? Social Preferences and Leading-by-Example," IZA Discussion Papers 3914, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Yao Zhang & Yushu Zhang & Yan Wu & Frank Krueger, 2023. "Default Matters in Trust and Reciprocity," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Perodaud, Maxime & Hanaki, Nobuyuki & Yamada, Takashi, 2022. "An experimental analysis of gender discrimination in a credence goods market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. Bernhard E. Reichert & Matthias Sohn, 2022. "How Corporate Charitable Giving Reduces the Costs of Formal Controls," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(4), pages 689-704, April.
    13. Gabriele Bellucci, 2022. "A Model of Trust," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-27, May.
    14. Fabian Kleine & Manfred Königstein & Balázs Rozsnyói, 2018. "Voluntary Leadership and Asymmetric Endowments in the Investment Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-21, July.
    15. Weiwei Xia & Xiaohan Guo & Jun Luo & Hang Ye & Yefeng Chen & Shu Chen & Weisen Xia, 2023. "Religious affiliations of Chinese people and prosocial behavior: evidence from field experiments," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 27(3), pages 473-504, September.
    16. Doñate-Buendía, Anabel & García-Gallego, Aurora & Petrović, Marko, 2022. "Gender and other moderators of giving in the dictator game: A meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 280-301.
    17. Cox, James C. & Orman, Wafa Hakim, 2010. "Immigrant Assimilation, Trust and Social Capital," IZA Discussion Papers 5063, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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