An experimental analysis of trust and trustworthiness

We report results from experiments analyzing trust and trustworthiness, which are components of social capital and have an impact on diverse economic phenomena. We conduct a within-subjects experiment where subjects participate in both the trust game and the dictator game and find that transfers in the trust game are higher and are motivated by expected reciprocation. Subjects in our experiment exhibit positive reciprocity. We find that trustworthiness in the trust game implies trust but not vice versa. Trustworthy subjects are also more generous in the dictator game. Finally we explore gender differences in behavior and find that men are more trusting than women but there are no significant gender differences in reciprocal behavior. JEL Classification: C72, C91, D83
1. Introduction A large body of evidence suggests that 'social capital' as embodied in the tendencies to 'trust' and to 'reciprocate' trust influences a wide range of economic phenomena and [...]