IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/adr/anecst/y2024i154p5-50.html

Trust and Social Preferences in Times of Acute Health Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Fortuna Casoria
  • Fabio Galeotti
  • Marie Claire Villeval

Abstract

We combined a natural experiment (the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020) with the tools of laboratory experiments to study whether and how an unprecedented shock on social interactions (the introduction and abrogation of a nationwide lockdown) affected the evolution of individuals' social preferences, and willingness to trust others. In a longitudinal online incentivized experiment during the first lockdown in France, we elicited the same participants' preferences for prosociality, trust and trustworthiness every week for three months. Despite the exposure to long-lasting social distancing, prosocial preferences and the willingness to reciprocate the trust of others remained stable during the whole period under study. In contrast, the lockdown had an immediate negative effect on trust, which remained at lower levels til after the lifting of such measures. The decline in trust, whereas reciprocity remained constant, was mainly driven by individuals who experienced financial hardship, lack of outward exposure, and higher anxiety during the lockdown, suggesting an effect through increased betrayal aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Fortuna Casoria & Fabio Galeotti & Marie Claire Villeval, 2024. "Trust and Social Preferences in Times of Acute Health Crisis," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 154, pages 5-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2024:i:154:p:5-50
    DOI: 10.2307/48777885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48777885
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2307/48777885?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Brun, Martín & D'Ambrosio, Conchita & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Ramos, Xavier, 2023. "After You. Cognition and Health-Distribution Preferences," IZA Discussion Papers 16126, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Galdikiene, Laura & Jaraite, Jurate & Kajackaite, Agne, 2024. "Effects of cooperative and uncooperative narratives on trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Ross, Johannes & Kienle, Ann-Katrin & Nicklisch, Andreas, 2024. "Sharing the cake during a crisis: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intertemporal altruism and efficiency concerns," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    5. Zhang, Yanan & Li, Jianbiao & Cao, Qian & Niu, Xiaofei, 2024. "Institutional quarantine and economic preferences: Experimental evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2024:i:154:p:5-50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Secretariat General or Laurent Linnemer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ensaefr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.