Trust responsiveness. On the dynamics of fiduciary interactions

Abstract

S c o l l a b o r a c o n c e n t r i d i r i c e r c a e u n i v e r s i t à n a z i o n a l i e d i n t e r n a z i o n a l i ; è a t t i v o n e l l ' o r g a n i z z a r e c o n f e r e n z e a d a l t o c o n t e n u t o s c i e n t i f i c o , s e m i n a r i e a l t r e a t t i v i t à d i n a t u r a f o r m a t i v a ; t i e n e a g g i o r n a t e u n a s e r i e d i b a n c h e d a t i e h a u n a s u a c o l l a n a d i p u b b l i c a z i o n i . Trust and trustworthiness are key elements, both at the micro and macro level, in sustaining the working of modern economies and their institutions. However, despite its centrality, trust continues to be considered as a "conceptual bumblebee", it works in practice but not in theory. In particular, its behavioural rationale still represents a puzzle for traditional rational choice theory and game theory. In this paper "trust responsiveness", an alternative explanatory principle that can account for trustful and trustworthy behaviour, is proposed. Such principle assumes that people can be motivated to behave trustworthily by trustful actions. The paper discusses the philosophical roots, the historical development, as well as the relational nature of this principle as well as its theoretical implications.

We Can Be Heroes Trust and Resilience in Corrupted Economic Environments

“…5 And this is what we observe. Note as well that the idea that a particularly praiseworthy behavior of trustors may trigger excess generosity from the trustee is consistent with the same findings of the first experimental trust game results in Berg et al (1995) 6 and with behavioral principles such as guilt aversion (Dufwenberg, 2002;Battigalli and Dufwenberg, 2007) and trust responsiveness (Guerra and Zizzo, 2004;Bacharach et al, 2007;Pelligra, 2005 and2010).…”

Trust and Trustworthiness in Corrupted Economic Environments

“…6 Indeed, this is what we observed. Note as well that the idea that particularly praiseworthy behavior of trustors may trigger excess generosity from the trustee is consistent with the findings of the first experimental trust game results in [13] 7 and with behavioral principles, such as guilt aversion [33][34][35] and trust responsiveness [36][37][38][39].…”

An experiment in political trust

“…This means that the voters gave up approximately $1.87 on average when From a policy perspective, improving information access to voters is not only important for motivating voters but for affecting incumbent behavior. Incumbent behavior in this experiment is possibly explained by trust-responsiveness where trusting behavior engenders a trustworthy response on the part of the agent even in the face of large opportunity costs (Guerra and Zizzo, 2004;Pelligra, 2010). Likewise, incumbents may be displaying guilt aversion based on what they believe are voters' payoff expectations (Charness and Dufwenberg, 2006).…”

“…There is also work in behavioral economics showing that humans exhibit a desire for the good opinion of others as well as a good opinion of themselves. This explains why we observe trustworthy behavior even in situations where the trustor's reaction is unknown and retribution is not possible (Dana, Weber, and Kuang, 2007;Pelligra, 2010); however, similar behavior might be explained by guilt aversion (Charness and Dufwenberg, 2006).…”