Influence of Indirect Information on Interpersonal Trust Despite Direct Information

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology 2017-01, Vol.112 (1), p.39-57
• Main Authors: Zarolia, Pareezad, Weisbuch, Max, McRae, Kateri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Behavior; Cooperative Behavior; Dyads; Female; Games; Human; Humans; Impression Formation; Information; Interpersonal Relationships; Male; Social Behavior; Social Learning; Social psychology; Trust; Trust (Social Behavior); Young Adult
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000074

Trust is integral to successful relationships. The development of trust stems from how one person treats others, and there are multiple ways to learn about someone's trust-relevant behavior. The present research captures the development of trust to examine if trust-relevant impressions and behavior are influenced by indirect behavioral information (i.e., descriptions of how a person treated another individual)-even in the presence of substantial direct behavioral information (i.e., self-relevant, first-hand experience with a person). Participants had repeated interpersonal exchanges with a partner who was trustworthy or untrustworthy with participants' money. The present studies vary the frequency with which (Studies 1 & 2), the order in which (Study 3) and the number of people for whom (Study 4) indirect information (i.e., brief vignettes describing trustworthy or untrustworthy behavior) were presented. As predicted, across 4 studies, we observed a robust effect of indirect-information despite the presence of substantial direct information. Even after dozens of interactions in which a partner betrayed (or not), a brief behavioral description of a partner influenced participants' willingness to actually trust the partner with money, memory-based estimates of partner-behavior, and impressions of the partner. These effects were observed even though participants were also sensitive to partners' actual trust behavior, and even when indirect behavioral descriptions were only presented a single time. Impressions were identified as a strong candidate mechanism for the effect of indirect-information on behavior. We discuss implications of the persistence of indirect information for impression formation, relationship development, and future studies of trust.