Mind & behavior · 2005
What shapes trust when people can’t be individually identified?
In an experiment with 139 participants, trust when individuals were not identifiable was based on expectations of inferred from group membership, not perceived trustworthiness. When individuals were identifiable, perceived trustworthiness instead enhanced reciprocity expectations, which increased trusting behaviour.
Details
Trusting behaviour involves relinquishing control over outcomes valuable to oneself. Previous research suggests that interpersonal perceptions of trustworthiness are closely related to this behaviour. The present research suggests that a more proximal determinant is the expectation that the other person will reciprocate.
Drawing on the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE), the researchers proposed that reciprocity expectations may arise from interpersonal perceptions of trustworthiness or shared group membership. To investigate this, they experimentally manipulated group membership and individual identifiability in a study of 139 participants. When individuals were not identifiable, trusting behaviour was based on expectations of reciprocity inferred from group membership, not on perceived trustworthiness. In contrast, personal identifiability fostered perceptions of trustworthiness for both in-group and out-group members. In that case, interpersonal trustworthiness enhanced expectations of reciprocity, which in turn increased trusting behaviour.
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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