Trust in Strangers: a Study on the influence of Emotions, Gender, Choice Effects, and Social Intelligence on Willingness to Trust.

Abstract

In this dissertation, we analyse how emotion, gender, choice and one's social intelligence can influence our willingness to trust a stranger. The first chapter focuses on exploring why trust has such an important role in our decisions and why it has been studied so much, not only in psychology but in the economic field as well. Afterward, an overview is presented on how trust is formed, both from a neurobiological and behavioural perspective. Trust can be measured through surveys of trust or behavioural experiments, such as the Trust Game. The dynamics of a Trust Game are explained, along with why they have been employed so widely in experiments measuring trust. Following, it is examined how contextual factors such as age, gender, similarity, choice and emotion can influence our trust in strangers. Along, an outline of studies conducted so far with trust game experiments on such contextual factors influencing trust is presented. In the second chapter, the methodology of the three experiments is discussed. For each experiment the hypothesis advanced are listed along with how they have been developed, and how the three experiments have been organized and carried out. In the third chapter, the results from the three experiments are presented. Finally, a brief consideration on the results obtained and the implications they may have from a business and academical perspective.