A Different Kind of Trust: Cross Cultural Evidence of Trust through Relational Identification

Abstract: We propose that the relationship between culture and trust is influenced by relational identification with the trust target. Across 3 studies with mixed methodologies, we assessed cultural differences in how social closeness between individuals shapes relational identification and interpersonal trust. In Study 1, building on cultural logics of honor, dignity, and face, our analysis of data from the World Values Survey shows that trust across cultures varies depending on the social closeness between trustor and a trustee (N=61301). In Study 2, we demonstrate that cultures differ in the extent to which they identify with targets to which they hold different levels of social closeness and that these differences closely match the trust patterns in Study 1. Finally, in a pre-registered experimental study, we show that cultural norms predict levels of trust through the amount of relational identification people report with the trust target in a Trust game.

Keywords: Culture, relational identification, trust

Topic: CULTGEN   |   Format: Full Paper