Should Versus Want: On the Relative Contribution of Injunctive Norms and Preferences on Trust Decisions

Abstract

Despite much research on the determinants of trust among strangers, its mechanisms are understood only rudimentarily. Recently, it has been proposed that people trust strangers because they believe they should, thus complying with an injunctive norm even if it conflicts with their preferences. However, given the boldness of this claim and in light of independent arguments and earlier findings that suggest otherwise, the hypothesis requires critical scrutiny. Thus, we tested whether the decision to trust (in the trust game) is indeed more strongly driven by what people think they should entrust rather than what they want to entrust in two studies. We consistently found a stronger influence of “want” than of “should” on trust decisions even when controlling for the fairness aspect inherent in the trust game. Thus, our findings speak against a predominant role of injunctive norms for trust behavior and confirm that the latter is mostly driven by preferences. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Reputational Consequences of Generalized Trust

“…It is also unclear if people trust primarily because it is what they feel they should do. Consistent with the idea that trust is not exclusively moral, Thielmann and Hilbig (2017) found that ratings of what people want to do were a stronger predictor of trust behavior compared with feelings of obligation. These findings point to the idea that trust is also influenced by instrumental concerns (see also Evans & Krueger, 2016 )—people trust, in part, because they hope to gain something from the interaction.…”

“…We consider three central hypotheses: First, we ask if generalized trust is associated with perceptions of morality. Work on principled trustfulness posits that people perceive trust in moral terms ( Dunning et al, 2014 ), but other findings suggest that trust occurs for more self-interested reasons ( Evans & Krueger, 2016 ; Thielmann & Hilbig, 2017 ). Second, we ask if generalized trust is associated with perceptions of sociability.…”

Suffering a Loss Is Good Fortune: Myth or Reality?

“…Participants completed the neuroticism and conscientiousness subscales (containing 17 items) drawn from the Chinese version of the Big Five Inventory‐44 (John, Donahue, & Kentle, ; John, Naumann, & Soto, ). Altruism was assessed with the DG, and the threshold for unfairness was measured by the UG (Forsythe, Horowitz, Savin, & Sefton, ; Thielmann & Hilbig, ). The mean UG scores were calculated using willingness circled on a 6‐point scale, and dictator allocations of 100 yuan made by participants in DG were coded.…”

Why People Trust: Solved Puzzles and Open Mysteries

“…Accordingly, people trust less when their ego has been depleted and they miss the self-control to do what is morally right (Ainsworth, Baumeister, Ariely, & Vohs, 2014). To be sure, what people want to do is also a high correlate of trust (Thielmann & Hilbig, 2017), but beyond that our studies suggest that rates of trust are pushed beyond the levels suggested by economics because of people’s beliefs about what they should do in trust situations (Dunning et al, 2014).…”