Trust and Adaptive Rationality Towards a New Paradigm in Trust Research Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Sozialwissenschaften der Universität Mannheim vorgelegt von Stephan Rompf Mannheim, 5. Juni 2012 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Esser Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Clemens Kroneberg Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... i Index of Tables and Figures ................................................................................................... iv 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Achievements and Enduring Questions in Trust Research .............................................. 1 1.2. Aim and Structure of this Work ....................................................................................... 6 1.3. Summary of Empirical Results ...................................................................................... 10 2. The Concept of Trust ......................................................................................................... 13 2.1. Objective Structure ........................................................................................................ 15 2.1.1. Constituents of Interpersonal Trust Relations ......................................................... 15 2.1.2. The Basic Trust Problem ........................................................................................ 17 2.1.3. Trust and Action ..................................................................................................... 18 2.1.4. Social Uncertainty ................................................................................................... 20 2.1.5. Vulnerability ........................................................................................................... 21 2.2. Subjective Experience.................................................................................................... 22 2.2.1. The Phenomenology of Trust .................................................................................. 22 2.2.2. Expectations and Intentions .................................................................................... 24 2.2.3. About Risk .............................................................................................................. 30 2.2.4. Morals of Trust ....................................................................................................... 34 2.2.5. Feelings and Emotions ............................................................................................ 38 2.3. Conceptual Boundaries .................................................................................................. 44 2.3.1. Familiarity and Confidence ..................................................................................... 44 2.3.2. Self-Trust ................................................................................................................ 47 2.3.3. System Trust ........................................................................................................... 48 2.3.4. Distrust .................................................................................................................... 50 2.4. From Structure to Experience ........................................................................................ 54 3. Origins and Explanations: An Interdisciplinary Approach ........................................... 60 3.1. Psychological Development .......................................................................................... 62 3.1.1. Learning and Socialization ..................................................................................... 62 3.1.2. Basic Trust .............................................................................................................. 65 3.1.3. Individual Dispositions and Traits .......................................................................... 68 3.1.4. Models of Trust Development ................................................................................ 71 3.2. Sociological Perspectives .............................................................................................. 76 3.2.1. Functions of Trust ................................................................................................... 76 3.2.2. Social Embeddedness .............................................................................................. 78 3.2.3. Social Capital and Reciprocity ................................................................................ 88 3.2.4. Trust and Culture .................................................................................................... 90 3.3. The Economics of Trust ................................................................................................. 96 3.3.1. The Rational Choice Paradigm ............................................................................... 96 3.3.2. Modeling Trust ...................................................................................................... 100 i 3.3.3. Encapsulated Interest ............................................................................................ 103 3.3.4. Contracts and Agency ........................................................................................... 108 3.3.5. Social Preferences ................................................................................................. 114 3.3.6. The Limits of Rational Choice .............................................................................. 122 3.4. Is Trust Rational? ......................................................................................................... 126 4. Trust and Adaptive Rationality ...................................................................................... 131 4.1. Different Routes to Trust ............................................................................................. 133 4.2. Adaptive Rationality .................................................................................................... 138 4.2.1. The Dual-Process Paradigm .................................................................................. 138 4.2.2. Context Dependence ............................................................................................. 145 4.2.3. Heuristics and Mental Shortcuts ........................................................................... 151 4.2.4. The Neuroscience of Trust .................................................................................... 155 4.3. Determinants of Information Processing ..................................................................... 158 4.3.1. Opportunity ........................................................................................................... 159 4.3.2. Motivation ............................................................................................................. 159 4.3.3. Accessibility, Applicability, and Fit ..................................................................... 160 4.3.4. Effort-Accuracy Tradeoffs .................................................................................... 162 4.4. Dual-Processing: A Critical Assessment ..................................................................... 164 4.5. The Model of Frame Selection .................................................................................... 167 4.5.1. Modeling Adaptive Rationality ............................................................................. 167 4.5.2. The Automatic Mode ............................................................................................ 170 4.5.3. The Rational Mode ............................................................................................... 173 4.5.4. The Mode-Selection Threshold ............................................................................. 176 4.6. Explaining Conditional and Unconditional Trust ........................................................ 183 4.7. Theoretical and Empirical Implications ....................................................................... 192 5. The Social Construction of Trust .................................................................................... 201 5.1. Defining the Context .................................................................................................... 203 5.1.1. Symbolic Interaction ............................................................................................. 203 5.1.2. Language and other Signals .................................................................................. 207 5.1.3. Relational Communication ................................................................................... 212 5.1.4. Framing Relationships .......................................................................................... 214 5.2. Trust and Identity ......................................................................................................... 216 5.2.1. The Concept of Identity ........................................................................................ 216 5.2.2. Categorization Processes ...................................................................................... 220 5.2.3. Signaling Identities ..............................................................................................