The biology of trust: Integrating evidence from genetics, endocrinology, and functional brain imaging.

Abstract

Trust is among the most important factors in human life, as it pervades almost all domains of society. Although behavioral research has revealed a number of insights into the nature of trust, as well as its antecedents and consequences, an increasing number of scholars have begun to investigate the topic from a biological perspective to gain a deeper understanding. These biological investigations into trust have been carried out on three levels of analysis: genes, endocrinology, and the brain. Based on these three levels, we present a review of the literature on the biology of trust. Moreover, we integrate our findings into a conceptual framework which unifies the three levels of analysis, and we also link the biological levels to trust behavior. The results show that trust behavior is at least moderately genetically predetermined. Moreover, trust behavior is associated with specific hormones, in particular oxytocin, as well as specific brain structures, which are located in the basal ganglia, limbic system, and the frontal cortex. Based on these results, we discuss both methodological and thematic implications.

Business Ethics: The Promise of Neuroscience

“…Women have a higher baseline level of oxytocin and lower levels of testosterone (Cahill, 2006;Schultheiss and Stanton, 2009). These hormones have been linked to aspects relevant for ethical behavior (e.g., trust, justice perceptions, aggressive behavior, and moral judgment) (see, for example, Carney and Mason, 2010;Riedl and Javor, 2012;Schultheiss et al, 2004). Future research could more clearly delineate the effect of gender differences based on hormonal dispositions for ethical behavior in the business context, e.g., by investigating the implications of hormonal differences between men and women in their reaction to organizational injustice or the aggressive behavior of colleagues.…”

Neural signatures of betrayal aversion: an fMRI study of trust

“…However, many studies indicate that trust (involving strategic uncertainty) is behaviourally distinct from risk (involving state uncertainty) [2][3][4][5][6][7]. In addition to research exploring the neural foundations of trust [8][9][10][11] and risk [12][13][14][15][16], recent research explores how the brain distinguishes these two types of decisions [17 -19]. Economically oriented trust research has also influenced research outside economics and basic neuroscience.…”

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“…Some of these additional areas are discussed in Dimoka et al (2012) and Riedl et al (2010a). Additionally, fNIR can augment current studies of trust and distrust as done in the context of fMRI (e.g., Dimoka, 2010;Riedl et al, 2010b;Riedl & Javor, 2012;Riedl, 2013) where it could serve to study in real- Pavlou & Gefen, 2004, 2005. fNIR could also provide insight on the crucial relationship between familiarity and trust as they occur in real world settings, as opposed to sitting in the movement and social limiting environment of an fMRI.…”