The Effect Of Materialism And Income Inequality On Interpersonal Trust In The Investment Game

Materialism is usually defined as a range of values that individuals emphasize the importance of wealth and financial success in their life.Currently,with the transformation of economy and society in China,materialism has been becoming increasingly prevailing,and this trend may have a great impact on interpersonal trust.At the same time the development of market economy will also produce another significant external outcome---the income inequality between individuals or different groups of people.Based on the theory of social projection,this paper explored the influence of materialism on trust behaviors in investment games,as well as the interaction between materialism and the income inequality in the investment game.Study one.In order to explore the relationship and the mechanism between materialism and interpersonal trust behavior,289 college students were selected to conduct the survey,materialism was evaluated by Materialism Values Scale and the Aspiration Index.The interpersonal trust behavior was investigated by the task of the hypothetical investment game.Participants completed the game decision-making successively as the trusters and the trustees.The measurement indicators include the amount of money that was invested by the trustors(trust investment behavior),the estimated proportion of return(reciprocity expectation)and the returned amount of money from the trustees(trustworthiness).The results showed that:(1)materialism has significantly negative effects on the investment amount of the trusters,the proportion of the estimated return,and the return amount of the trustees;(2)Materialism can predict trust investment behavior through the returned amount and the estimated proportion of return.Study two,174 college students were distributed into a Single factor and 3 levels(income distribution conditions:income equality,disadvantage inequality,advantage inequality)experiment.Materialism Values Scale and Aspiration Index were used to evaluate the materialism.Interpersonal trust behavior was investigated by investment game.The results showed that:(1)Materialism values have significant main effects on the amount of trust investment,the estimated proportion of return and the amount returned by the trustees;Materialism values could negatively predict the amount of trust investment,the estimated proportion of return and the amount returned by the trustee.(2)The main effect of income distribution condition was not significant.(3)Income distribution condition and the materialism values have significant interactions(including marginal significance).The advantage in inequality tended to further increase the negative effects of materialism values on trust investment amount and expected proportion of return,high level materialists showed less trustworthiness(return less money)toward the trustors who have a higher income.Study 3 further verified the causal relationship between variables through two experiments.Experimental manipulation was used to activate the materialism.Experiment 1 was an Internet experiment,408 college students were selected to adopt a 2(materialistic tendency:high,low)x 3(income distribution conditions:income equality,disadvantaged inequality,advantaged inequality)experiment.A hypothetical investment game task was used to assess interpersonal trust behavior.The results showed that:(1)The main effect of materialism tendency was significant,and the investment amount,estimated proportion of return and returned amount of the high level materialism tendency group were significantly lower than those of the low level materialism group.(2)The main effect of income distribution conditions was only significant in the estimated proportion of return.(3)The interaction between materialism tendency and income distribution conditions was significant(including marginal significance);Experiment 2 was a laboratory experiment,184 college students were selected to adopt into a 2(materialistic tendency:high,low)x 3(income distribution conditions:income equality,disadvantaged inequality,advantaged inequality)experiment.Actual investment game task was conducted to investigate interpersonal trust behavior.The results showed that the effects of materialism tendency,income distribution condition were significant.The results of both experiments showed that high level materialistic trusters were more distrustful of others in the advantaged inequality condition,and high level materialistic trustees showed lower trustworthiness behavior when they face the income-advantaged investors.In study 4,a meta-analysis was conducted.We integrated four independent research samples from the three studies in this paper with the method of internal meta-analysis.The sample size of the internal meta-analysis was 1866.The main effect test showed that materialism could negatively predicts the investment amount of investors in the investment game(r=-0.23,p<0.001),the estimated return proportion(r=-0.15,p<0.001)and the return amount of trustees(r=-0.15,p<0.001).Subgroup analysis was conducted to analyze the moderating effects.The results showed that the difference in investment amount between the groups of different income distribution conditions reached the marginal significance(Q_b=4.618,df=2,p=0.099).The effect size was the largest one in the inequality of advantaged condition(r=-0.47,p<0.001),and the smallest one in the inequality of disadvantaged condition(r=-0.10,p<0.001).There were significant differences between the two groups in the estimated proportion of return(Q_b=7.81 df=2,p<0.05)and the return amount(Q_b=6.99,df=2,p<0.05)in the different income distribution condition.The effect of materialism on the estimated proportion of return was the largest in the inequality of advantaged condition(r=-0.39,p<0.001)and the least under the inequality of disadvantaged condition(r=-0.07,p<0.001).The amount of effect on the return amount is the largest in the inequality of disadvantaged condition(r=-0.44,p<0.001)and the smallest under the inequality of advantaged condition(r=-0.06,p<0.001).Conclusions:(1)Materialism can significantly reduce the interpersonal trust behaviors in the investment game.(2)Materialism can indirectly predict the trust investment behavior by predicting trustworthiness and reciprocal expectation negatively.(3)There is a significant interaction between materialism and income distribution condition,materialism tend to further reduce the trustworthiness of the income disadvantage condition and to further reduce the trust in the income-advantaged condition.