The More You Expect, the Less You Trust: On the Flipside of Trustworthiness Expectations
11 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2015 Last revised: 12 Oct 2017
Date Written: October 11, 2017
Abstract
Studying a binary-choice trust game, we observe a negative relationship between people’s expectations of others’ trustworthiness and their own willingness to trust. This counterintuitive finding may be interpreted as a strategy to avoid negative emotions such as disappointment and regret, which may arise when one’s initial positive expectations are disconfirmed.
Keywords: Disappointment, Emotions, Expectations, Regret, Trust, Trustworthiness
JEL Classification: A13, C91, D81
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Breuer, Wolfgang and Helduser, Christiane and Schade, Philipp, The More You Expect, the Less You Trust: On the Flipside of Trustworthiness Expectations (October 11, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2703306 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2703306
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