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Trust, Trustworthiness and the Consensus Effect: An Evolutionary Approach

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  • Fabrizio Adriani

    (University of Leicester)

  • Silvia Sonderegger

    (School of Economics, University of Nottingham)

Abstract

People often form expectations about others using the lens of their own attitudes (the so-called consensus effect). We study the implications of this for trust and trustworthiness. Trustworthy individuals are more \optimistic" than opportunists and are accordingly less afraid to engage in market-based exchanges, where they may be vulnerable to opportunistic behavior. In some cases, the material benefits from greater market participation may compensate for the costs of being trustworthy. We use an indirect evolutionary approach to endogenize preferences for trustworthiness, showing that a polymorphic equilibrium (where both trustworthiness and opportunism coexist in the population) may be evolutionarily stable. Better institutions limiting the scope for opportunism may favor the spreading of trustworthiness (crowding in), but the opposite (crowding out) may also occur. Our analysis is consistent with experimental evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabrizio Adriani & Silvia Sonderegger, 2013. "Trust, Trustworthiness and the Consensus Effect: An Evolutionary Approach," Discussion Papers 2013-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:not:notcdx:2013-09
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    2. Barinas-Forero, Andres, 2024. "Why should my group trust yours? Collective trust and trustworthiness under Economic Shocks," Documentos CEDE 21170, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    3. Fabrizio Adriani & Silvia Sonderegger, 2018. "The Signaling Value of Punishing Norm-Breakers and Rewarding Norm-Followers," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-32, December.
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    5. Facundo Albornoz & Jake Bradley & Silvia Sonderegger, 2022. "Updating the Social Norm: the Case of Hate Crime after the Brexit Referendum," Working Papers 203, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogenous Preferences; Trust; Consensus Effect; Institutions; Crowding Out;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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