15.36 Trust of individuals and groups.
Trust is an essential element in any exchange of goods or services. The following trust game is often used to study trust experimentally:
A sender starts with $X and can transfer any amount to a responder. The responder then gets and can transfer any amount back to the sender. The game ends with final amounts and for the sender and responder, respectively.
The value x is taken as a measure of the sender’s trust, and the value indicates the responder’s trustworthiness. A study used this game to study the dynamics between individuals and groups of three.14 The following table summarizes the average amount x sent by senders.
Sender | Responder | |||
Individual | Individual | 32 | 65.5 | 36.4 |
Individual | Group | 25 | 76.3 | 31.2 |
Group | Individual | 25 | 54.0 | 41.6 |
Group | Group | 27 | 43.7 | 42.4 |