Trust in the faith game

Abstract

General trust, or trust in people with unknown personal backgrounds and with whom there is no interpersonal relationship, is key for the formation of an effective society. The Trust Game has long been a popular behavioral measurement of general trust; however, other measurements, such as the Faith Game, are increasingly attracting attention. Nevertheless, while the psychological and neural mechanisms of trust in the Trust Game have been revealed in numerous studies, little is known about trust in the Faith Game. In the present study, we exploratorily examined how behavioral trust in both the Trust Game and Faith Game correlates with trust-related individual characteristics (i.e., attitudinal trust, social caution, and social value orientation). The results showed that attitudinal trust is only related to the trust shown in the Trust Game, and that risk aversion and betrayal aversion are related to the trust shown in both games.