Trust Behavior Research Articles

The influence of social status and promise levels in trust games: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) study.

Promises are widely used to increase trust in social status; yet how promise levels and social status influence trust behavior and its underlying neurophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. We used a modified trust game to investigate the effects of promise levels and social status on trust behavior. Participants, as investors paired with trustees of varying social status who were given the opportunity to promise to return different levels of money, were required to decide to whether trust the trustees. In Experiment 1, trustees promised to return high-, medium-, or low-level money to participants, and no return feedback was provided. In Experiment 2, trustees promised to return high- and low-level money to participants. Return feedback was provided and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded. The behavioral results indicated that participants trusted high-status partners more than low-status partners, regardless of the promise level. The ERP results showed that with low-status partners, the N2 was more negative and the P3 was smaller under low-level promise conditions than under high-level promise conditions. However, with high-status partner, there were no differences in N2 and P3 between high- and low-level promise conditions. Our findings suggest that social status may affect the perception of potential risks across different promise levels in trust.

The Impact of Long-Term Tai Chi Practice on the Trust Behavior of Middle-Aged People.

Trust behavior is of fundamental importance for social stability and development. Middle-aged people, owing to their abundant social resources and extensive experience, have a significant impact through their trust behavior. However, research on enhancing their trust behavior is relatively scarce. Tai Chi, as an activity that combines physical and mental exercise characteristics, may potentially influence the trust behavior of middle-aged people, yet direct research in this regard is lacking. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of Tai Chi on the trust behavior of middle-aged people and its underlying neural mechanisms. This study recruited two groups of middle-aged individuals as research participants. Specifically, the Tai Chi group consisted of 37 middle-aged people with long-term Tai Chi practice experience, while the control group comprised 29 middle-aged individuals without any Tai Chi practice background. The behavioral performance and EEG data of the participants in both groups were recorded during their participation in the trust game. At the behavioral level, the trust rate of the Tai Chi group was higher than the random level (50%), and they made decisions more quickly. The event-related potential (ERP) data revealed that there were interaction effects between the Tai Chi group and the control group in the P2 and N2 components, which are ERP indicators during the decision-making stage. Moreover, in the feedback stage, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude evoked in the Tai Chi group was smaller than that in the control group. Long-term practice of Tai Chi can enhance decision-making speed and influence brain activity. It provides important reference for understanding the relationship between Tai Chi and the trust behavior of middle-aged people. Although there are limitations in this study, it lays a foundation for future research.

You, Me, and the AI: The Role of Third‐Party Human Teammates for Trust Formation Toward AI Teammates

ABSTRACTAs artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated in teams, understanding the factors that drive trust formation between human and AI teammates becomes crucial. Yet, the emergent literature has overlooked the impact of third parties on human‐AI teaming. Drawing from social cognitive theory and human‐AI teams research, we suggest that how much a human teammate perceives an AI teammate as trustworthy, and engages in trust behaviors toward the AI, determines a focal employee's trust perceptions and behavior toward this AI teammate. Additionally, we propose these effects hinge on an employee's perceptions of trustworthiness and trust in the human teammate. We test these predictions across two studies: (1) an online experiment comprising individuals with work experience that examines perceptions of disembodied AI trustworthiness, and (2) an incentivized observational study that investigates trust behaviors toward an embodied AI. Both studies reveal that a human teammate's perceived trustworthiness of, and trust in, the AI teammate strongly predict the employee's trustworthiness perceptions and behavioral trust in the AI teammate. Furthermore, this relationship vanishes when employees perceive their human teammates as less trustworthy. These results advance our understanding of third‐party effects in human‐AI trust formation, providing organizations with insights for managing social influences in human‐AI teams.

A new model for calculating human trust behavior during human-AI collaboration in multiple decision-making tasks: A Bayesian approach

A new model for calculating human trust behavior during human-AI collaboration in multiple decision-making tasks: A Bayesian approach

Neural correlates of vicarious reward processing and peer victimization experiences in late childhood.

This preregistered study examined the neural correlates of vicarious reward processing and subsequent trust behavior in relation to experiences of victimization averaged over two years in late childhood. This study used a sample of children with prospective longitudinal data on peer victimization over the past two years (nbehavioral = 83, 49.4 % girls, Mage = 10.6 years, nfmri = 62). Participants played an fMRI vicarious reward task in which they could win or lose money for themselves and two other peers. The two other peers were experimentally manipulated to either include or exclude the participant in a Cyberball task prior to the task. Additionally, trust in the two peers was assessed using a one-shot trust game. Results revealed ventral striatum activation when winning (versus losing) for oneself, and activation in the dmPFC, vmPFC and precuneus when playing for excluders rather than for oneself. Victimization predicted decreased ventral striatum activation during personal rewards, and increased activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex when playing for excluders rather than for oneself. Finally, averaged victimization was associated with increased differentiation in trust toward the including and excluding peers. Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of the social cognitions and behaviors of victims of bullying.

No evidence for an association of testosterone and cortisol hair concentrations with social decision-making in a large cohort of young adults.

Prior research has established that testosterone is an important modulator of social decision-making. However, evidence on the relationship between basal testosterone levels, commonly measured in saliva or blood, and social behavior has been inconsistent due to methodological shortcomings. Additionally, it has been suggested that cortisol might moderate the association between basal testosterone and social behavior. The present study examined how individual differences in cumulative hair testosterone map onto social decision-making under consideration of a potential modulating role of hair cortisol in a large community sample of young adults (N = 1002). We observed a negative association between hair testosterone and trust behavior (odds ratio = 0.84) and a positive association with self-reported aggressive behavior (β = 0.08). The effects were small and became nonsignificant after controlling for key covariates of steroid hormones in hair (e.g. hair color, contraceptives, and use of psychoactive substances). Hair testosterone levels were not significantly associated with any other social behavior examined, and no modulating effects of hair cortisol were found. Overall, these findings provide no evidence for a role of basal testosterone hair concentrations in human social decision-making and do not indicate that hair cortisol moderates hair testosterone's effects on social behavior.

Synchronous and anti-phase drumming elicit similar prosocial behavior ratings

PurposeMusic performance facilitates prosociality across many cultures and contexts. Interestingly, the relationship between prosociality and sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) has so far primarily been demonstrated in the context of in-phase synchrony with only a few mixed results for anti-phase coordination. In anti-phase coordination, participants move at the same rate, at opposite phases, which also requires high levels of coordination and attention. This case is particularly relevant for music and prosociality, as music regularly involves naturalistic anti-phase coordination. We thus tested whether anti-phase synchronization is as effective as in-phase synchronization at eliciting prosocial behavior.MethodsDyads (N = 50 dyads) were randomly assigned to complete four trials of a drumming sensorimotor synchronization-continuation task (SCT) either alone, synchronously or in anti-phase. Before and after the drumming task, dyads completed a behavioral economics game involving trust. Additionally, a questionnaire about trust, cooperation, affect, and similarity was given after the drumming task.ResultsCooperation rates in the stag-hunt game were near ceiling (~87%) across all conditions pre-SCT, with negligible change after the drumming task. Questionnaire items were analyzed using Bayesian probit mixed effects models to account for dyadic sampling and ordinal data, and to provide evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. Models provided moderate to extremely strong evidence that the anti-phase and in-phase coordination conditions rated their affect, trust, similarity, and cooperation more strongly than dyads in the alone condition (all BF10 > 3). When only comparing the anti-phase and in-phase conditions, moderate evidence in favor of the null (i.e., that phase does not affect ratings) was found for all questions (all BF10 < 0.3). Descriptions of the posterior, as well as leave-one-out cross validation (LOO) results, were in general accordance with the Bayes Factor results.ConclusionEvidence indicates anti-phase drumming coordination is as effective as in-phase in increasing perceived trust, cooperation, affect, and similarity. Future analyses will examine how other characteristics of the drumming coordination, such as the lag-1 autocorrelation and variability of the inter-tap interval time-series, relate to prosocial behavior and ratings of trust and cooperation.

FOMO driving brand nostalgia and brand personality for building trust in a food enthusiast: a serial multiple mediation model

Purpose During the pandemic, restaurants closed due to restrictions and economic instabilities. This research paper aims to investigate the motivational effect of nostalgia induced by fear of missing out (FOMO) upon the e-WOM about the dining place. Did FOMO evoke nostalgic memories and emotional symptoms with the dining place? It further inspected if the diners trust the restaurant for these nostalgic memories and their emotional connect. Design/methodology/approach A survey-based questionnaire was applied to collect data. A two-step method for analyzing the measurement and structural model was applied by using the principles of SEM to analyze the associations among key constructs in the proposed model. Findings Psychological constructs like nostalgia and personality drove the diners’ behavior of trust and e-WOM. The findings also confirmed the mediation effect of brand nostalgia, brand personality and brand trust between FOMO and e-WOM. Further, the model has elucidated the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and usage gratification theories. Originality/value This paper has contributed to the branding literature by examining how brand constructs have mediated the path between FOMO and e-WOM. Multiple serial mediation effect among the key variables has been a novel contribution of this study. The ELM and the usage gratification theory have been integrated to extend the theoretical underpinnings in the hospitality sector.

Cultural Origins of Business Formation in the Context of Kinship and Trust

This paper presents a conceptual framework connecting historical kinship structures and generalized trust into modern business formation. Kinship intensity, defined as the degree of strength in family ties, is shaping the social and economic outlook of societies. Building upon the existing literature, I argue that societies with strong kinship ties often exhibit collectivist characteristics, leading to less trust towards outsiders. This hinders market efficiency and collaborative partnerships, resulting in business formation being largely confined to family-owned enterprises. Conversely, societies with loose kinship structures exhibits higher level of generalized trust that enable to promote engagements beyond family networks. This promotes establishing larger firms with strangers, more efficient markets, and greater cooperation with foreign firms. The paper suggests that kinship and trust behavior are deeply-rooted in culture and influence social and economic development. It is important for policymakers to support initiatives that foster trust beyond family ties in order to promote collaboration among diverse market participants.

Intertwining Between Online Retailer's Trustworthiness Attributes and Consumer's Purchase Intentions: A Knowledge Management Perspective in Response to COVID‐19

ABSTRACTCOVID‐19, a black swan event which caused a long‐lasting effect on every sphere of human lives including consumers' perceptions and behaviors in e‐retailing to the extent that they might leave a mark even when the pandemic is over. The purpose of this study is to understand the critical dimensions of online retailer trustworthiness, which have an impact on consumer trust and consumer purchase intentions, as the success of organizations depends on the effective use of their knowledge management capabilities in the deadly situation of COVID‐19. The aim is to provide an insight into how retailers can handle this unprecedented situation, gain consumer trust, and use this customer knowledge to grow their businesses. The three dimensions of e‐service quality, website quality, customer service, security, and privacy demonstrate the online retailer's trustworthiness and better predict customer's trust behavior. Grounded in the Hofstede cultural dimensions' theory, this study is expected to extend our knowledge about the moderating effect of the cultural environment of trust on consumers' online purchase intentions during the COVID‐19 situation. Data were collected from 350 online consumers through a well‐structured questionnaire and used to test the proposed research model employing structural equation modeling. Results show that three attributes of e‐service quality convey the perception of the trustworthiness of retailers and affect consumers' overall trust in OP and subsequent purchase intentions.

Advanced trust classification in social networks using a triple generative adversarial network-assisted capsule network enhanced by gannet optimization

Over the past ten years, social networks (SN) have evolved into the primary infrastructure for people's everyday activities. Trust classification in social networks involves evaluating the trustworthiness of users or the information they share. Traditional trust classification methods often rely on explicit features, such as user ratings, reviews, and social ties. These methods utilize rule-based to assign trust scores for users or entities. However, they face challenges in capturing the exact nature of trust. In this manuscript, Advanced Trust Classification in Social Networks using a Triple Generative Adversarial Network-Assisted Capsule Network Enhanced by Gannet Optimization (Trust-TripleGAN-CapsNet-GOA) is proposed. In this manuscript, the feature vector has computed to every social network users pair after the raw data from the Sentiment140 dataset, is analysed. The membership of trust is then ranked according to five-class classifications by incorporating Tanimoto Trust Similarity coefficient. Then, Triple Generative Adversarial Network-Assisted Capsule Network (TripleGAN-CapsNet) is used to categorise the trust values of users. Finally, the weight parameters of TripleGAN-CapsNet is optimized by the Gannet Optimization Algorithm (GOA) to enhance the accuracy of the trust behaviour in SN. The proposed Trust-TripleGAN-CapsNet-GOA method attains 22.94 %, 32.36 % and 21.96 % higher accuracy, 30.27 %, 19.46 % and 12.39 %, higher precision when analyzed with the existing models, such as a method for trust mirroring assessment under social networks parameters with fuzzy system (Trust-SNP-FS), deep matrix factorization in social networks for trust-aware recommendation (Trust-DMF-SN) and towards time-aware context-aware deep trust prediction on the online social networks (TACADTrust-SN). The simulation outcomes exhibit that the proposed method attains 99 % accuracy.

Payoff-driven migration promotes the evolution of trust in networked populations

Establishing and maintaining trustworthy behaviors in large populations of self-interested individuals is a significant problem which received extensive attentions from research fields such as evolutionary biology, economics, sociology and engineering. As a well-known model that captures social trust dilemmas, the N-player trust game is adopted to investigate the evolution of trust in groups consisting of investors and trustees. In addition, to model real scenarios in dynamic environments, we introduce a novel migration mechanism, called adaptive environment-benefit-driven migration, which considers the influence of individuals’ payoffs on migration. Through theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the migration mechanism on facilitating trust behaviors in the framework of evolutionary game theory. We find that the population density plays a crucial role in establishing trust. Simulation results reveal that trust can be fostered in a dynamic environment influenced by individual migration with the medium vacancy rate. This work significantly contributes to the understanding of mutual trust behaviors in networked social systems from a more realistic perspective.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards scrub typhus control and associated influencing factors among residents in Longling County, Yunnan Province in 2023

To investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards scrub typhus control and analyse the influencing factors among residents in Longling County, Yunnan Province in 2023, so as to provide insights into management of scrub typhus in the county. Two townships were randomly sampled from Longling County, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province in July 2023, and 2 to 3 administrative villages were randomly selected from each township. Then, 20 to 40 households were randomly selected from each village, and 1 to 2 villagers were surveyed in each household. Residents' KAP towards scrub typhus control was investigated, and factor affecting residents' KAP towards scrub typhus control were identified with independent samples t test or analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression analysis. A total of 417 questionnaires were allocated, and 410 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 98.32%. Of all respondents, 65.85% (270/410) heard of scrub typhus but were not familiar with it, and 12.68% (52/410) and 1.95% (8/410) were familiar and very familiar with it, respectively. Residents mainly acquired scrub typhus control knowledge via their relatives and friends. The knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores of the respondents with regard to scrub typhus were (34.14 ± 13.07), (55.04 ± 6.69), and (21.40 ± 5.61), respectively, and the total score for knowledge, belief, and behavior in relation to scrub typhus prevention and control was (110.57 ± 18.80). Univariate analysis revealed that age (F = 3.12, P < 0.05), education (F = 10.77, P < 0.05), occupation (F = 4.89, P < 0.05), frequency of outdoor activities (F = 3.61, P < 0.05), and type of place of residence (t = 1.33, P < 0.05) were the factors that influenced the participants' scores for knowledge of the prevention and control of scrub typhus. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that literacy level (β = 10.20 to 16.71, P < 0.05) and category of residence (β = -7.23, P < 0.05) were the factors that influenced residents' current knowledge and trust behavior in relation to scrub typhus. Place of residence and educational level are critical factors affecting scrub typhus control among residents in Longling County, Yunnan Province. Intensified health education pertaining to scrub typhus control and appropriate behavioral interventions are required among residents living in urban areas, with a low educational level and frequent outdoor activities.

Communicating and combating algorithmic bias: effects of data diversity, labeler diversity, performance bias, and user feedback on AI trust

ABSTRACT Inspired by the emerging documentation paradigm emphasizing data and model transparency, this study explores whether displaying racial diversity cues in training data and labelers’ backgrounds enhance users’ expectations of algorithmic fairness and trust in AI systems, even to the point of making them overlook racially biased performance. It also explores how their trust is affected when the system invites their feedback. We conducted a factorial experiment (N=597) to test hypotheses derived from a model of Human-AI Interaction based on the Theory of Interactive Media Effects (HAII-TIME). We found that racial diversity cues in either training data or labelers’ backgrounds trigger the representativeness heuristic, which is associated with higher algorithmic fairness expectations and increased trust. Inviting feedback enhances users’ sense of agency and is positively related to behavioral trust, but it reduces usability for Whites when the AI shows unbiased performance. Implications for designing socially responsible AI interfaces are discussed, considering both users’ cognitive limitations and usability.

Toward Better Customer Engagement: The Mediating Role of Cognitive and Behavioral Trust in Search and Social Media Platforms

ABSTRACT The increasing diversity in advertising options warrants more research on user engagement with advertisements across different digital platforms. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model and consumer skepticism theories, we examine the central role of the three-dimensional construct of trust—cognitive, emotional, and behavioral—in overcoming advertisement skepticism (AS) and improving advertisement engagement (AE). Using survey data from a large sample in the United States (N = 841), we compare the effect of skepticism on engagement as mediated by trust, on social (Facebook) versus search (Google) platforms. In a multistage analysis, initial results indicated that trust is a significant mediator for both Facebook and Google. Subsequent testing revealed that for Facebook, the behavioral dimension of trust fully mediated the skepticism and engagement link, whereas for Google, all three dimensions of trust only partially mediated the skepticism and engagement link. This suggests that on social media platforms, behavioral trust is crucial for overcoming skepticism to achieve better engagement. Furthermore, when comparing all pathways in the model, we found that on search platforms, cognitive trust was significantly more influential in overcoming skepticism for better engagement.

Manager’s Trust and Trustworthiness in Sustainable Practices: Impact on Turnover and Manager’s Performance in Restaurants in China

This study examines the effects of managers’ trusting and trustworthy behaviors toward employees on turnover rates and performance evaluations within 115 restaurants in China. Utilizing data from a large-scale hypothetical experiment involving over 2000 employees and managers, combined with performance and operational data from these restaurants, we applied both game theoretical and empirical methods to analyze the dataset. Our findings reveal that managers’ trusting and trustworthy actions are significantly associated with lower turnover rates, highlighting how trust-driven leadership can enhance organizational stability and sustainable business practices. For senior associate managers, their trusting actions toward employees positively impact their performance. Furthermore, senior associate managers working in restaurants where employees are more trusting and trustworthy toward their peers tend to receive higher performance ratings. This study uniquely connects behavioral trust and trustworthiness measures with objective performance outcomes, offering new insights into the critical role of trust in fostering sustainable business practices and improving economic performance.

Inappropriate trusting behaviour in dementia.

Inappropriate trusting behaviour may have significant social, financial and other consequences for people living with dementia. However, its clinical associations and predictors have not been clarified. Here we addressed this issue in canonical syndromes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In 34 patients with AD and 73 with FTD (27 behavioural variant (bv)FTD, 22 semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), 24 nonfluent/agrammatic variant (nfv)PPA) we recorded inappropriate trusting and other abnormal socio-emotional behaviours using a semi-structured caregiver survey. Patients were comprehensively characterised using a general cognitive assessment and the Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS; an informant index of socioemotional awareness). Inappropriate trusting was more frequent in svPPA (55%) and bvFTD (44%) than nfvPPA (17%) or AD (24%). After adjusting for age, sex, education and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, inappropriate trusting was significantly more likely in svPPA (odds ratio 3.61; 95% confidence interval 1.41-8.75) and bvFTD (3.01, 1.23-6.65) than AD. Significant predictors of inappropriate trusting comprised apathy in svPPA, disinhibition and altered pain responsiveness in bvFTD, and lower MMSE and RSMS (self-presentation) scores in AD. Dementia syndromes vary in prevalence and predictors of abnormal trusting behaviour, with implications for clinical counselling and safeguarding.

In human–machine trust, humans rely on a simple averaging strategy

With the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in our lives, attention is increasingly turning to the way that humans and AI work together. A key aspect of human–AI collaboration is how people integrate judgements or recommendations from machine agents, when they differ from their own judgements. We investigated trust in human–machine teaming using a perceptual judgement task based on the judge–advisor system. Participants (n=89\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$n=89$$\\end{document}) estimated a perceptual quantity, then received a recommendation from a machine agent. The participants then made a second response which combined their first estimate and the machine’s recommendation. The degree to which participants shifted their second response in the direction of the recommendations provided a measure of their trust in the machine agent. We analysed the role of advice distance in people’s willingness to change their judgements. When a recommendation falls a long way from their initial judgement, do people come to doubt their own judgement, trusting the recommendation more, or do they doubt the machine agent, trusting the recommendation less? We found that although some participants exhibited these behaviours, the most common response was neither of these tendencies, and a simple model based on averaging accounted best for participants’ trust behaviour. We discuss implications for theories of trust, and human–machine teaming.

Using attentive temporal GNN for dynamic trust assessment in the presence of malicious entities

Trust networks are built on the premise that there is a network of trust among entities. Precisely evaluating pairwise trust in such networks is essential for enhancing the quality of service in various applications, including online marketing, recommender systems, and IoT-based applications. However, it remains challenging to consider dynamic trust and account for malicious behavior in a scalable and effective manner.Recently, Graph Neural Networks (GNN)-based methods have emerged as powerful and scalable tools for trust estimation. Nevertheless, they lack thorough consideration for the time-dependent nature of trust, especially in the presence of malicious behaviors, leading to inaccurate trust predictions. To address this gap, we propose a novel trust assessment model called MATA, which handles the time dependency of trust and exhibits robustness against malicious behaviors. MATA leverages an extended Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) integrated with Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and an attention mechanism to jointly capture time dependencies and trace entities’ behavior over time in complex networks. Additionally, by clustering the learned trust representations over time, we assign reputation values to entities. This allows us to monitor their dynamic behavior and mitigate potential adverse effects on trust assessment.In our experiments on real-world datasets, MATA outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by up to 8.4 % in accuracy. This improvement is a testament to the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Furthermore, our work enhances the robustness of trust assessment models, as evidenced by consistently higher performance metrics in the face of various trust-related attacks.

Measuring belongingness in outdoor orientation programs

Outdoor orientation programs (OOPs) are reported to be successful at increasing students' feelings of belongingness. Currently only a handful of measures exist for assessing college students’ sense of belonging. This exploratory study examines three belongingness scales currently used in higher education assessing their effectiveness as measures of OOPs: the Student Belongingness Scale, the Workplace Belongingness Scale, and a one-question belongingness measure. The scales varied in their focus; for example, the Student Belongingness Scale measured perceptions of both peer belonging and institutional belonging. Researchers determined that scales focusing on belongingness to a small group provided the most useful data for OOPs. Management Implications: The findings of this study suggest managers of outdoor recreation programs consider ways to measure a sense of belongingness among participants as belongingness continues to grow as a measurement concept important to managers of outdoor recreation programs. Researchers recommend using an adaptation of the Workplace Belongingness Scale (renamed The Adventure Belongingness Scale) because the scale has both face validity and high correlations with the Behavioral Trust Inventory. The Student Belongingness Scale provides particularly useful data for assessing belongingness to institutions. Both scales should be considered to provide insight into the effectiveness of OOPs. The data for this study were collected via an online survey conducted in the fall of 2021.