The Influence Of Social Class On Trust

Objective: Trust is not only the basis of interpersonal communication,but also the "lubricant" for the normal functioning of society.Social class as a social signal has an important influence on trust.This research aims to:(1)Explore the influence of social class(trustor social class and trustee social class)on trust.(2)Explore ways to increase trust in lower-class trustees.Method: This research adopts the experimental method and conducts three sub-studies in total.Research 1 adopts a mixed experimental design of 2(class of trustors: high,low,between subjects)× 2(class of trustees:high,low,within subjects).The social class of trustors is measured by Mac Authur scale,while the social class of the trustee is expressed in terms of academic qualifications and monthly income.The dependent variable is trust,which is measured by the amount of investment in one-shot trust game.The second study adopts a mixed experimental design of 2(class of trustors: high,low,between subjects)× 2(class of trustees: high,low,within subjects).The manipulation of the independent variable is the same as in Study 1,and the dependent variable is the trust,but it is measured by the average amount of investment in the repeated trust game.The third study is aimed at low-level trustees and adopts a single-factor inter-subject experimental design.The independent variable is empirical credibility(high and low),which is manipulated by the probability of returning money in repeated trust games.The dependent variable is the same as in Study 2.Result: The results of study 1 found that:(1)the main effect of the trustee’s social class is significant,and the individual’s trust in high-class trustees is significantly higher than that of low-class trustees;(2)the interaction between the trustee’s social class and the trustee’s social class on trust.The effect is significant.Compared with the high-level trusters,the low-level trustees trust the high-level trustees more;the second study found that:(1)the main effect of the trustee’s social class is significant;(2)the main effect of the trustee’s social class is not significant;(3)The number of interactions increases,and the trust in the lower-class trustees increases significantly,and the trust in the high-class trustees has no significant change;the results of the third study found that:(1)The trustworthiness has a significant impact on the trust of the lower-class trustees.The trust in high credibility is significantly higher than that in low credibility;(2)With the increase in the number of interactions,the trust in high credibility increases significantly,while the trust in low credibility does not change significantly.Conclusion:(1)Compared with low-level trustees,people trust highlevel trustees more;and in the initial interaction,low-class individuals trust high-class trustees more than high-class individuals;(2)The number of interactions and Trustworthiness can be Effectively improve people’s trust in lower-class groups.