Do Lucky People Reciprocate More? The Effect of Outcome Bias on Trustworthiness

Abstract

This study investigates how reciprocity works in a simple trust game when the subjects are framed as either lucky or unlucky. We induce luckiness perception to the second mover by introducing uncertainty with a different combination of possible multipliers, allowing us to observe the effect of outcome bias on trustworthiness while controlling for the wealth effect. We do not find a significantly different level of trustworthiness between lucky second movers and unlucky second movers. The result suggests the null effect of outcome bias on reciprocal behaviour. JEL Classifications: C91, D01, D63, D91