The relationship between general trust and trust behavior : An exploratory investigation using the trust game and faith game

Trust is instrumental in politics, economics, law, interpersonal relationships, and other areas of society, and has been actively studied in various social science fields, including socio and political science. Previous studies have reported that countries with higher levels of trust have more equitable income distribution, less corruption, and more social prosperity, and that which rises and falls with the social environment and aging, such as interpersonal relationships. Trust behavior, which is a way in which people show trust toward others, is defined as behavior that entrusts one’s gain to others with the risk of losing benefits. It is composed of multiple factors, including general trust, reciprocity, and risk avoidance, with this study focusing on general trust, which is a belief that people use to determine whether to trust strangers. In other words, it is the tendency to make presumptions about the degree of others’ altruism. General trust shows a positive correlation with trust behavior in the trust game but shows weak or non-correlation with trust behavior in the faith game. Trust and faith games have been used as experimental paradigms for measuring trust behavior. This study has examined whether the correlation between general trust and trust behavior is based on presumed altruism. Study 1 has exploratorily examined whether the correlation between general trust and trust behavior differs between these games. A total of 769 monitors recruited by a crowdsourcing company participated in the online-based questionnaire and economic games. The results showed that general trust would be correlated with trust behavior in both games, and the rate of trust behavior would be higher in the trust game than in the faith game. The results indicate that the relationship between general trust and trust behavior was not based solely on presuming altruism toward others, suggesting that other factors were involved. Consequently, Study 2 has examined whether general trust reflects the expectation of reciprocity using the prisoner’s dilemma game. A total of 581 monitors collected by a crowdsourcing company participated in the onlinebased questionnaire and the prisoner’s dilemma game. The results showed that general trust has positive associations with both cooperative behavior and presumed cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma game. Hence, general trust refl ects not solely a presumption of altruism toward others, but the presumption of reciprocity. Therefore, it is considered unlikely to be correlated with trust behavior in the faith game, which is defi ned by guessing whether other people’s behavior is unilaterally altruistic. However, as the studies that examine the relationship between the faith game and general trust remain scarce, it is necessary to confirm whether the results of this study are a stable phenomenon. On that basis, it will be necessary to consider whether general trust reflects presumed reciprocity, presumed altruism toward others, or both.