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Trust among the Avatars: A Virtual World Experiment, with and without Textual and Visual Cues

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Abstract

We invited ìresidentsî of a virtual world who vary in real-world age and occupation to play a trust game with stakes comparable to ìin worldî wages. In different treatments, the lab wall was adorned with an emotively suggestive photograph, a suggestive text was added to the instructions, or both a photo and text were added. We find high levels of trust and reciprocity that appear still higher for non-student and older subjects. Variation of results by treatment suggests that both photographic and textual cues influenced the level of trust but not that of trustworthiness.

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  • Stephen Atlas & Louis Putterman, 2010. "Trust among the Avatars: A Virtual World Experiment, with and without Textual and Visual Cues," Working Papers 2010-18, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bro:econwp:2010-18
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    Cited by:

    1. John Duffy, 2011. "Trust in Second Life," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(1), pages 53-62, July.
    2. Innocenti, Alessandro, 2017. "Virtual reality experiments in economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 71-77.
    3. Kovacs, Roxanne & Dunaiski, Maurice & Galizzi, Matteo M. & Grimalda, Gianluca & Hortala-Vallve, Rafael & Murtin, Fabrice & Putterman, Louis, 2024. "The determinants of trust: findings from large, representative samples in six OECD countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124608, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    trust; experiment; internet; virtual world; priming;
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