The Influence Of Intention On Trust Decisions

Trust is the willingness to accept vulnerability based upon positive exceptions of other’s behavior or intention.At present,most studies assume that both players are in an environment with sufficient information,and behavioral outcomes can perfectly reflect behavioral intentions.However,most daily interpersonal interactions contain elements of uncertainty or ambiguity,and results are not always consistent with intentions.Some studies focus on the influence of the trust intention of the trustor on the reciprocity behavior of the trustee from the perspective of the trustee,but fail to fully characterize how the intention of the trustee affects the trust decision of the trustor in the trust relationship.Three experiments to explore the effect of intention information transparency and intention type on trust decision making and the effect of apology and compensation on trust repair under the situation of inconsistency between outcome and intention.Study 1 to explore tthe influence of intention information transparency(clear and obscure)on individual trust decision making under noisy condition.It was a single-factor subject design,with clear and obscure intention information as independent variables,no noise condition as control variable,and trust choice ratio of subjects in trust game as dependent variable.38 college students were recruited as the trustor to complete a single round of noisy trust game with others.The results showed that there was no significant difference in the level of trust between the noisy situation group and the clear intention information group,and both were significantly higher than the obscure intention information group.Study 2 to explore the influence of intention type and decision result on trust decision,which was a 2×2 within-subject design.The independent variables were: decision outcome(gain vs.loss),intention type(reciprocity vs.violation),and the dependent variable was the investment amounts in the continuous trust game.47 college students were recruited as the trustor to complete the continuous noisy trust game with others.The results show that the main effect and interaction of decision outcome and intention type are significant.The trust level of the violation violation group was significantly lower than that of the reciprocal intention group regardless of the outcome result gain or loss.In addition,it is found that the trust level of the outcome gain group is significantly higher than that of the outcome loss group when reciprocal intention is present.However,when the intention is violated,the trust level is low and has no significant difference regardless of the outcome gain or loss.This result further reveals the important role of intention independent of income outcome in trust decision making--the trust decision of the trustor is not only motivated by higher gain,but also the " benevolence " conveyed by the trustee’s reciprocal intention.Study 3 to explore the trust repair effect of apology and financial compensation under the situation of inconsistent intention and result,which was a 2×2 within-subject design.The independent variables were: apology(apology vs.no-apology),compensation(compensation vs.no-compensation),and the dependent variable was the amount of investment in the continuous noisy trust game.44 college students were recruited for Study 3A(Loss outcome-Reciprocity intention).The results showed that the main effect of apology and compensation was significant,and the trust level of the apology group was significantly higher than that of the no-apology group.The interaction between apology and economic compensation is significant.In the no-apology situation,the investment amount of the compensated group is significantly higher than that of the no-compensation group.In the apology situation,there was no significant difference in the amount invested between the compensation group and the nocompensation group.41 college students were recruited for study 3B(Gain outcome – Violation intention).The results showed that the main effect of compensation was significant,but the main effect of apology was not significant.The trust level of the group with compensation was significantly higher than that of the group without compensation.To sum up,the perception of trustee’s intention is an important factor affecting the trust decision of the trustor.In interpersonal interaction,intention information transparency and reciprocal intention are both important bases for individuals to make trust decision.In addition,economic compensation has a better trust repair effect in the situation where the outcome and intention are inconsistent.If the trustor loses the result due to uncontrollable factors,the superfluous apology of the trustee will predict a higher trust level of the trustor.However,when the trustee intentionally violated,a simple apology will not change the trust level of the trustor.This study helps to provide experimental evidence for expanding the research on information transparency in the field of interpersonal trust and improving the interpersonal trust model.Meanwhile,the experimental results show the trust repair effects of apology and economic compensation under different situations of trust violation,which provides reference for better improving the level of interpersonal trust.