IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v248y2025ics0165176525000503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring trust across countries: Inconsistencies between experiments and surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Jin, Shan
  • Yan, Sibo
  • Zhang, Xiaomeng

Abstract

This study examines whether incentivized experiments and non-incentivized surveys yield consistent cross-country measurements of trust. Drawing on data from Johnson and Mislin (2011) meta-analysis of 151 trust games, recent 71 studies, and Falk et al (2018) Global Preferences Survey, we find notable divergences between these two approaches. To explore these differences, we conducted trust game experiments with and without incentives at universities in China and the United States. In China, the incentive condition led to markedly different outcomes, while in the U.S., differences were relatively small. Moreover, Chinese participants displayed significantly higher levels of trust in non-incentivized settings. These findings underscore that the influence of incentives on trust varies substantially across cultural contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin, Shan & Yan, Sibo & Zhang, Xiaomeng, 2025. "Measuring trust across countries: Inconsistencies between experiments and surveys," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000503
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525000503
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112213?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lab experiment; Large survey; Trust; Incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

    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:eee:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000503. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.