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Measuring trust: A reinvestigation

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  • Billur Aksoy
  • Haley Harwell
  • Ada Kovaliukaite
  • Catherine Eckel

Abstract

We reinvestigate the question first posed by Glaeser et al. (2000): Do survey measures about trust predict actual trusting behavior? This important study established that the behavior in an incentivized trust game is not correlated with the responses to the most widely used survey measures of trust. We conduct a replication and a reinvestigation of GLSS. In the replication, we use the GLSS protocol and we reproduce their results. In the reinvestigation, we introduce one major change: We replace their variation of the standard Berg, Dickhaut, and McCabe (1995) investment game with the original unmodified game. The standard game endows both players, while the modified version endows only the first mover. After endowing both movers in the reinvestigation experiment, we find a significant correlation between the two measures, suggesting that trust is a single construct, whether measured by the survey questions or by an incentivized trust game.

Suggested Citation

  • Billur Aksoy & Haley Harwell & Ada Kovaliukaite & Catherine Eckel, 2018. "Measuring trust: A reinvestigation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 992-1000, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:84:y:2018:i:4:p:992-1000
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12259
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    3. Blumkin, Tomer & Pinhas, Haim & Zultan, Ro’i, 2020. "Wage Subsidies and Fair Wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    4. Héloise Cloléry & Guillaume Hollard & Fabien Perez & Inès Picard, 2022. "Should we trust measures of trust?," Working Papers 2022-13, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    5. Natalia Candelo & Angela C. M. Oliveira & Catherine Eckel, 2023. "Trust among the poor: African Americans trust their neighbors, but are less trusting of public officials," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 427-452, September.
    6. Diego Marino Fages, 2023. "Migration and trust: Evidence on assimilation from internal migrants," Discussion Papers 2023-08, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    7. Weber, Martin & Germann, Maximilian & Loos, Benjamin, 2018. "Trust and Delegated Investing: A Money Doctors Experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 12984, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Chaudhuri, Ananish & Li, Yaxiong & Paichayontvijit, Tirnud, 2016. "What’s in a frame? Goal framing, trust and reciprocity," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 117-135.
    9. 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.
    10. Galdikiene, Laura & Jaraite, Jurate & Kajackaite, Agne, 2022. "Trust and vaccination intentions: Evidence from Lithuania during the COVID-19 pandemic," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(11), pages 1-1.
    11. Sabina Albrecht & David Smerdon, 2022. "The social capital effects of refugee resettlement on host communities," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(320), pages 80-112, March.
    12. Sofianos, Andis, 2022. "Self-reported & revealed trust: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. J Jobu Babin, 2020. "Linguistic signaling, emojis, and skin tone in trust games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Amalia Rodrigo-González & María Caballer-Tarazona & Aurora García-Gallego, 2019. "Active Learning on Trust and Reciprocity for Undergraduates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Póvoa, Angela Cristiane Santos & Pech, Wesley & Woiciekovski, Edinéia, 2020. "Trust and social preferences: A cross-cultural experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. 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.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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