Hukou identity and trust—Evidence from a framed field experiment in China

Abstract

Social integration between migrant and local populations is a major social issue in the development of Chinese society. The most direct impact is reflected in trust and trustworthiness between the local household registered population and the nonlocal household registered population. In this paper, using the framed field experiment method with local and nonlocal hukou pupils as subjects, hukou identity is exogenously introduced into the trust game through information disclosure and “priming” technology to investigate whether hukou identity affects trust between the two hukou identities. The experimental results show that the concept of hukou identity and its characterized cognition of different treatments have been implanted in people since childhood, thereby affecting their trust and trustworthiness in the process of social integration. Subjects will show more trust (more investment) towards local hukou pupils compared to nonlocal hukou pupils, and subjects will show higher trustworthiness (more return amount) towards partners who share hukou identity than those with a different hukou identity.