INFLUENTIAL FACTORS OF TRUST DECISION

Abstract

This study aimed to explore factors affecting trust decisions: the carry-over effect of emotion on trusting someone psychologically close or distant in socially different contexts. First, based on previous findings that incidentally occurring emotions have spill-over effects on irrelevant tasks, the study predicted that participants feeling a certain emotion (anger, sadness, or happiness) would make trust decisions differently according to induced emotion. Then, it was tested if individual’s trust traits are associated with the decision to willingly trust someone, and if the incidentally evoked emotion influences the decision even after controlling for trust traits. Second, it was examined how people react to socially or strategically different situations dealing with interactive, relational, and monetary outcomes by employing two decision task types (the centipede game and the scenario). Lastly, the effect of social distance on trust was investigated with the trust target set as either a stranger or a friend. As a result, it was found that, although emotion was successfully elicited, its main effect on trust was not clearly demonstrated; individual’s trait to measure materialistic preference (i.e., SVO) was related to the decision in the game more strongly than in the scenario; extreme trust or distrust decisions were observed more frequently in the game than in the scenario; trusting a friend more than a stranger was found with the scenario task but not with the game task.