Novel Insights into Who, Where, and Why We Trust

Abstract: Trust is a psychological state that reflects the beliefs and expectations one person has about others’ behavior and intentions in situations entailing risk and vulnerability. Trust is essential for conflict management and for effective professional and personal relationships. In this symposium, we present novel research on the psychological, interpersonal, and contextual factors underlying the decision to trust another person. We highlight the importance of power, organizational roles, and behavior consistency, and show the relationship between trust and emotions. In particular, the papers presented will show that (1) trust can be a triadic and include brokers, which can shape trust by influencing perceived distances; (2) individuals are less likely to trust powerholders and more likely to accuse them of wrongdoing; (3) the relationship between deception and trust differs when being deceptive once versus being completely deceptive; (4) individuals can build trust in virtual exchanges through negative-emotional small talk, which boosts perceived authenticity; and (5) trust both diminishes envy after ‘losing’ to another person, and buffers the harmful consequences of envy. This set of papers discusses novel theories and findings, integrating results from the lab and from the field. We highlight the importance of investigating trust using a broader lens, reflecting multiple timepoints and different interpersonal and organizational contexts.

Keywords: Trust; Interpersonal/Relational Processes; Intergroup Relations