Abstract
Most theories about effects of social embeddedness on trust define mechanisms that assume
someone’s decision to trust is based on the reputation of the person to be trusted or on other available
information. However, there is little empirical evidence about how subjects use the information that is
available to them. In this chapter, we derive hypotheses about the effects of reputation and other
information on trust from a range of theories and we devise an experiment that allows for testing these
hypotheses simultaneously. We focus on the following mechanisms: learning, imitation, social
comparison, and control. The results show that actors learn particularly from their own past
experiences. Considering third-party information, imitation seems to be especially important.
| Original language | Undefined/Unknown |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | eTrust. Forming Relationships in the Online World |
| Editors | K. S. Cook, C. Snijders, V. Buskens, C. Cheshire |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Publisher | Russell Sage Foundation |
| Pages | 37-72 |
| Number of pages | 36 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-87154-311-0 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Sociaal-culturele Wetenschappen (SOWE)