August 2007

IZA DP No. 3010: Do the Reciprocal Trust Less?

published in: Economics Letters, 2008, 99 (3), 454-457

We study the intrapersonal relationship between trust and reciprocity in a laboratory experiment. Reciprocal subjects trust significantly more than selfish ones. This finding raises questions about theories of social preferences which predict that “fairer” players should trust less.