IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/has/discpr/2603.html

How to Identify Trust and Reciprocity: A Replication

Author

Listed:
  • L. Flóra Drucker

    (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

  • Dániel Horn

    (Corvinus University Budapest; ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies)

  • Sára Khayouti

    (University of Zürich)

  • Hubert János Kiss

    (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies; Corvinus University Budapest)

Abstract

We replicate the seminal three-games design introduced by Cox (2004) to disentangle trust and reciprocity from other-regarding preferences in the classic trust game. This study marks the first attempt to replicate these findings using a non-university sample. Our experiment was conducted online via Prolific, with participants based in the United States. In the original study, Cox (2004) found that senders in a treatment where receivers could not send back any money sent less than in the classical trust game, suggesting that sender behavior reflects a combination of other-regarding preferences and trust. This finding replicates in our experiment. However, the second finding does not replicate: receivers who automatically received money from senders did not send back significantly less than those in the classical trust game, where senders actively made the sending decision. Consequently, unlike Cox (2004), we find no clear distinction between other-regarding preferences and reciprocity.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Flóra Drucker & Dániel Horn & Sára Khayouti & Hubert János Kiss, 2026. "How to Identify Trust and Reciprocity: A Replication," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2603, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:has:discpr:2603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://kti.krtk.hu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/KRTKKTIWP202603.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    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:has:discpr:2603. 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: Nora Horvath The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Nora Horvath to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehashu.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.