Beneficial Betrayal Aversion

Aimone, Jason A.; Houser, Daniel

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017725

Cited by 37 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Yet, as Aimone and Houser argue, only in the know condition do participants face the danger of being personally betrayed. In line with their hypothesis, more participants chose the risky option in the don't know condition than in the know condition (Aimone & Houser, , ). Aimone, Houser, and Weber () replicated this finding and additionally gathered functional MRI data showing a heightened activation of the anterior insular cortex in the know condition as compared with the don't know condition, indicating heightened negative arousal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Effron and Miller () provided support for Bohnet's and Zeckhauser's results: Using a similar paradigm, they showed that people anticipate and indeed experience more self‐blame when being exploited by another person as compared with losing in a lottery, and that anticipated self‐blame mediated the effect of paradigm (trust game versus lottery) on participants' “minimum acceptable probability.” Further, in a number of studies, Aimone and Houser (, , ) claim to have shown the phenomenon of betrayal aversion using a different experimental paradigm. Their change in design had the purpose of overcoming a number of weaknesses of the MAP design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does betrayal aversion really guide trust decisions towards strangers?

Fetchenhauer

Lang

Ehlebracht

et al. 2020

Behavioral Decision Making

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Trust is a double‐edged sword. When warranted, it leads to positive and rewarding interactions. When not, it leads to disappointment and anger. Therefore, it has been argued that people will display “betrayal aversion” in trust situations (i.e., avoid trusting to avoid betrayal). Yet, people also feel tense and uneasy when they signal distrust to another person and thus show signs of “principled trustfulness” (i.e., choosing to trust others although being skeptical of their trustworthiness). These two theoretical orientations imply directly opposite influences on trust behavior. Thus, we conducted two laboratory studies (with a total of 841 participants) with binary trust games (implying a risk of being betrayed) and extended lottery games (implying no such risk). In both studies, we varied the payoff structures of both games. Further, we made sure that the average perceived likelihood of winning or losing money when choosing the risky option was identical in both games, as was the distribution of these likelihoods. Neither study showed any sign of betrayal aversion. Rather, participants were more willing to risk their money in the trust game than they were to invest their money in a lottery, supporting the principled trustfulness view. We discuss possible explanations why, unlike previous studies, we did not find any indication of betrayal aversion.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does betrayal aversion really guide trust decisions towards strangers?

Fetchenhauer

Lang

Ehlebracht

et al. 2020

Behavioral Decision Making

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At the same time, anonymous online interactions can carry significant risks [5]. Developing a better understanding of the economic costs and benefits of anonymous online interaction may be an especially profitable direction for future research [40,41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural signatures of betrayal aversion: an fMRI study of trust

2014

Self Cite

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Decisions are said to be 'risky' when they are made in environments with uncertainty caused by nature. By contrast, a decision is said to be 'trusting' when its outcome depends on the uncertain decisions of another person. A rapidly expanding literature reveals economically important differences between risky and trusting decisions, and further suggests these differences are due to 'betrayal aversion'. While its neural foundations have not been previously illuminated, the prevailing hypothesis is that betrayal aversion stems from a desire to avoid negative emotions that arise from learning one's trust was betrayed. Here, we provide evidence from an fMRI study that supports this hypothesis. In particular, our data indicate that the anterior insula modulates trusting decisions that involve the possibility of betrayal.

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“…This sage advice recognizes the inherent risk of betrayal embodied in bestowing trust [57], [58], [59]. The TG is designed to measure trust but its measurement is confounded by the element of risk since we must also consider that trust is not reciprocated [60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

U-Shaped Relation between Plasma Oxytocin Levels and Behavior in the Trust Game

et al. 2012

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Trust underpins much of social and economic exchanges across human societies. In experimental economics, the Trust Game has served as the workhorse for the study of trust in a controlled incentivized setting. Recent evidence using intranasal drug administration, aka ‘sniffing’, suggests that oxytocin (OT) can function as a social hormone facilitating trust and other affiliative behaviors. Here we hypothesized that baseline plasma OT is a biomarker that partially predicts the degree of trust and trustworthiness observed in the trust game. Using a large sample of 1,158 participants, we observed a significant U-shaped relationship between plasma OT with the level of trust, and marginally with the level of trustworthiness, especially among males. Specifically, subjects with more extreme levels of plasma OT were more likely to be trusting as well as trustworthy than those with moderate levels of plasma OT. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the biological basis of human trust and underscore the usefulness of peripheral plasma OT measures in characterizing human social behavior.

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Beneficial Betrayal Aversion

Cited by 37 publications

References 27 publications

Does betrayal aversion really guide trust decisions towards strangers?

Does betrayal aversion really guide trust decisions towards strangers?

Neural signatures of betrayal aversion: an fMRI study of trust

U-Shaped Relation between Plasma Oxytocin Levels and Behavior in the Trust Game

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