The Impact of Payoff Interdependence on Trust and Trustworthiness

Abstract In one-shot investment games where each player’s payoff is a convex combination of own and other’s profit, we measure trust by the amount given to the trustee and trustworthiness by the amount returned to the trustor by the trustee. Does the degree of payoff interdependence increase both trust and trustworthiness or one but not the other or neither of them? According to our experimental data, trust remains unaffected by the extent of interdependence whereas trustworthiness reacts positively to it.