The dynamics of trust from the perspective of a trust game

Abstract

Trust is an essential feature in the majority of everyday social activities. Trust is not static but dynamic; it changes over time, manifesting itself differently in different situations and with different behaviors of others. Many of these changes can be captured in experimental settings based on a 'trust game,' coming from game theory. This game enables us to explore the consequences of various experimental manipulations of the many different variables that affect the degree of trust. However the mechanisms captured by the trust game have not yet been described from a dynamic systems perspective. In this chapter this deficiency is rectified. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.