Can Groups be Trusted? An Experimental Study of Collective Trust

Abstract

Several previous studies measure the extent to which individuals trust other individuals and argue that individual trust is an important element of interaction in organizations and markets. However, a related topic is the extent to which it is possible for individuals to trust groups as separate entities. This concept, referred to as collective trust, has been previously discussed but not carefully demonstrated. We conduct experiments that specifically address the question of whether it is possible for individuals to exhibit trust for a group, beyond the trust they exhibit for individual members of that group. Using the trust (or investment) game, our results show that individuals exhibit collective trust: They transfer perceptions of trustworthiness to individuals based on previous experiences with members of that individual's group, even with a very minimal form of group membership.JEL Classification: C92

Whom do you distrust and how much does it cost? An experiment on the measurement of trust

“…2 The few studies in economics that consider features of the target of trust are consistent with our contention of its importance, though none highlights the general importance of target-specificity for the measurement of trust to the extent we do here. Specifically, studies explore how trust varies based on target characteristics such as attractiveness (Eckel and Wilson, 2006;Scharlemann et al, 2001), "social distance" from the trustor (Buchan et al, 2002;, ethnic origin (Fershtman and Gneezy, 2001), and on whether the target is an individual or group (Kugler et al, 2007;McEvily et al, 2006). None of these studies explores how behavioral and attitudinal measures are related when accounting for the target of trust, as we do here.…”

Identifying personality traits to enhance trust between organisations: an experimental approach

“…Their findings tend to indicate that groups are less trusting than individuals, but that they are just as trustworthy. McEvily et al (2006) find that subjects transfer a perception of trustworthiness, which they gained from an interaction with a group, to each of its individual members (see also Kramer et al, 1996;Buchan et al, 2002).…”

Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?

“…Glaeser et al (2000), for instance, raise doubts on the validity of the World Values Survey trust question (which is similar to the one we use), by showing that it is not correlated with the sender behavior in the standard trust game (Berg et al, 1995). Sapienza et al 2007 , McEvily et al, 2006;Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales, 2004). This is different from personalized trust, the mutual trust people developed through repeated interactions (Greif, 1993), which is more important in relational contracts.…”