Trust in Everyday Life

Doctoral Course of Cognitive Science - PhD Seminar
Within the MIUR programme framework “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza”

Time: 11h00 - 12h00

Venue: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Meeting Room, Corso Bettini 31, Rovereto

Speaker: Wilhelm Hofmann - Ruhr-Universität Bochum (DE)

Abstract: Although trust seems to play a pivotal role in many aspects of life, and despite strong traditions of laboratory-based and survey-based work into determinants and consequences of trust, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life interaction contexts.
Using experience-sampling methodology, we investigated the prevalence, sources, and correlates of trust in people’s natural environments. Results show high average levels of trust, but also considerable variability in trust across contexts. This variability could be attributed to surface-level, psychological, as well as structural features of the interaction in question. Everyday trust was linked to self-disclosure, as well as to cooperation, particularly in situations of high conflict. At the dispositional level, average trust levels could be linked to demographic factors such as political orientation, and to dispositional measures such as trust beliefs. Furthermore, established laboratory-based trust game decisions predicted everyday trust only with regard to interactions low in closeness such as towards strangers, but not with regard to close interactions. Finally, we located trust in the larger network of psychological states which corroborated our conclusion that trust can be thought of a relational hub that interconnects the social perception of the interaction partner, the relational strength between trustor and trustee, key structural features of interdependence, and behavioral response options such as self-disclosure and cooperation.

Scientific coordinator: Maria Paola Paladino