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Does the trust game measure trust?

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  • Brülhart, Marius
  • Usunier, Jean-Claude

Abstract

Could altruism explain observed choices in the standard trust game? With dominant altruism, trustors would give more to poor trustees. However, we find trustors to give no more to poor than to rich trustees, confirming trust as the dominant motivation for “trust like” choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Brülhart, Marius & Usunier, Jean-Claude, 2012. "Does the trust game measure trust?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 20-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:115:y:2012:i:1:p:20-23
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.039
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cox, James C., 2004. "How to identify trust and reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 260-281, February.
    2. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Mahmud, Minhaj & Martinsson, Peter, 2005. "Does stake size matter in trust games?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 365-369, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chetty, Rinelle & Hofmeyr, Andre & Kincaid, Harold & Monroe, Brian, 2021. "The Trust Game Does Not (Only) Measure Trust: The Risk-Trust Confound Revisited," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Giovanni Bartolomeo & Stefano Papa, 2016. "Trust and reciprocity: extensions and robustness of triadic design," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(1), pages 100-115, March.
    3. Bjornskov, Christian & Bogetic, Zeljko & Hillman, Arye & Popovic, Milenko, 2014. "Trust and Identity in a Small, Post-Socialist, Post-Crisis Society," EconStor Preprints 95968, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Di Bartolomeo Giovanni & Papa Stefano, 2013. "Measuring trust, reciprocity and altruism by counterfactuals," wp.comunite 0099, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    5. Lawrence Ian Reed & Ashley K Meyer & Sara J Okun & Cheryl K Best & Jill M Hooley, 2020. "In smiles we trust? Smiling in the context of antisocial and borderline personality pathology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-12, June.
    6. Hernán Bejarano & Joris Gillet & Ismael Rodriguez‐Lara, 2018. "Do Negative Random Shocks Affect Trust and Trustworthiness?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(2), pages 563-579, October.
    7. Bejarano, Hernán & Gillet, Joris & Rodriguez-Lara, Ismael, 2021. "Trust and trustworthiness after negative random shocks," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Imke L. J. Lemmers-Jansen & Rune J. Wichmann & Sophie Perizonius & Sukhi S. Shergill, 2022. "The Influence of Trial-By-Trial Feedback on Trust in Health, First-Episode and Chronic Psychosis," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, August.
    9. Florens C. Pfann & Gerard A. Pfann, 2024. "Is Trust a Driver of Patience? A Cross - Country Analysis," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 8(S2), pages 9-18, December.
    10. Bi, Qingqing & Boh, Wai Fong & Christopoulos, Georgios, 2021. "Trust, fast and slow: A comparison study of the trust behaviors of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    11. Ninghua Du & Shan Gui & Daniel Houser, 2024. "Trust, lies, and inequality," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(1), pages 249-262, January.
    12. Bergh, Andreas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2014. "Trust, welfare states and income equality: Sorting out the causality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 183-199.
    13. Ismael Rodriguez-Lara, 2018. "No evidence of inequality aversion in the investment game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Bergh, Andreas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2013. "Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What?," Working Paper Series 994, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    15. Katarzyna Samson, 2018. "Trust as a mechanism of system justification," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-22, October.
    16. Dirk Engelmann & Jana Friedrichsen & Roel van Veldhuizen & Pauline Vorjohann & Joachim Winter, 2023. "Decomposing Trust," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 454, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    17. Pang, Yudan & Wu, Hang & Wang, Xuefeng & Shi, Mengmeng, 2025. "Impact of organizational structure and in-organization resource allocation on trust and trustworthiness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    18. Bejarano, Hernan & Gillet, Joris & Lara, Ismael Rodríguez, 2021. "When the rich do (not) trust the (newly) rich: Experimental evidence on the effects of positive random shocks in the trust game," OSF Preprints wmejt, Center for Open Science.
    19. Bejarano, Hernan & Gillet, Joris & Lara, Ismael Rodríguez, 2021. "When the rich do (not) trust the (newly) rich: Experimental evidence on the effects of positive random shocks in the trust game," OSF Preprints wmejt_v1, Center for Open Science.
    20. Sabater-Grande, Gerardo & García-Gallego, Aurora & Georgantzís, Nikolaos & Herranz-Zarzoso, Noemí, 2022. "The effects of personality, risk and other-regarding attitudes on trust and reciprocity," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    21. Ekici, Tufan & Ergun, Selim Jürgen & Rivas, M. Fernanda, 2016. "Trust and reciprocity in Cyprus," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 36-49.
    22. Di Bartolomeo Giovanni & Papa Stefano, 2012. "The triadic design to identify trust and reciprocity: Extensions and robustness," wp.comunite 0096, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    23. Candel-Sánchez, Francisco & Perote-Peña, Juan, 2024. "How does corporate altruism affect oligopolistic competition?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    24. Florens Pfann & Gerard Pfann, 2024. "Can trust explain patience? A cross-country analysis," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2024 02, Stata Users Group.
    25. van den Akker, Olmo R. & van Assen, Marcel A.L.M. & van Vugt, Mark & Wicherts, Jelte M., 2020. "Sex differences in trust and trustworthiness: A meta-analysis of the trust game and the gift-exchange game," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trust game; Altruism; Experimental error;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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