Beyond Belief: How Implicit Beliefs Influence Trust
31 Pages Posted: 24 Apr 2008
Date Written: April 15, 2008
Abstract
We demonstrate that implicit beliefs influence trust. In an experiment, we induced one of two types of implicit beliefs: entity beliefs about negotiation ability (a belief that negotiation ability is fixed over time), and incremental beliefs about negotiation ability (a belief that negotiation ability can change over time). We find that people induced with entity beliefs maintain trust in their counterpart even when they learn that their counterpart deceived them. Participants in the entity condition ignored and discounted negative information. Participants induced with incremental beliefs, however, significantly decreased trust in their counterpart when they learned that their counterpart had deceived them. In addition to changing how trust is harmed by violations, implicit beliefs are likely to influence the trust recovery process.
Keywords: trust, implicit beliefs, negotiation
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