Effects of knowledge of the recipient's identity and innate personality traits of the giver in trust and reciprocity games: A behavioral experiment of undergraduate students of the University of the Philippines School of Economics
Date
2018
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Abstract
The trust phenomenon is at the core of the social bond. It is often used as a common
explanatory feature of the success of collective action. To measure trust in between
individuals, a behavioral game called Trust Game is commonly utilized. In this game, the
predicted Nash Equilibrium outcome is that people trust strangers less. Wanting to look at
other possible factors affecting one’s propensity to trust others, we incorporated economics
with psychology. We considered the socioeconomic factors and innate characteristics such
as personality traits to determine the levels and drivers of trust in a micro-level setting.
Furthermore, we analyzed whether knowledge of the partner’s identity, reciprocity, and the
big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism) influenced the trust level of a person. In this study, a 50-
item psychometric questionnaire, 17-item general trust and reciprocity module, and 2 trust
games with 4 rounds each were conducted on 60 undergraduate students of University of the
Philippines School of Economics. Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the
gathered data from the participants. Findings revealed that an individual’s propensity to trust
is positively affected by his knowledge of his partner’s identity. Moreover, expectations to
be reciprocated by the other person is significantly affected by levels of various personality
traits.
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Keywords
trust game, reciprocity, identity, big five personality traits, SOCIAL SCIENCES::Business and economics::Economics, SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychology