Trust and Rationality: An Integrative Framework for Trust Research

425 Pages·2015·4.488 MB·English

by  Stephan Alexander Rompf (auth.)

Forschung und Entwicklung
in der Analytischen Soziologie
Herausgegeben von
M. Jungbauer-Gans, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Die Reihe nimmt die Forderung der Analytischen Soziologie auf, dass sich die
soziologische Th eoriediskussion stärker auf erklärende soziale Mechanismen
konzentrieren sollte. Die Analytische Soziologie sucht nach präzisen, handluns-
theoretisch fundierten Erklärungen für soziale Phänomene. Dabei soll eine Balance
zwischen einer abstrahierenden und einer realitätsgerechten Th eoriebildung ge-
halten werden. Im Vordergrund der Reihe steht nicht die Th eorieentwicklung und
-diskussion, sondern die empirische Umsetzung, die sich den skizzierten theore-
tischen Grundsätzen verpfl ichtet fühlt. Der handlungstheoretischen Fundierung
widerspricht nicht, dass auch Makrophänomene und insbesondere die Wechsel-
wirkungen zwischen Strukturen und Individuen untersucht werden. Die Reihe
bietet in Folge dessen ein Forum für Nachwuchswissenschaft lerInnen, welche die
theoretischen Überlegungen der Analytischen Soziologie konsequent in empi-
rischen Untersuchungen umsetzen.
Herausgegeben von
Prof. Dr. Monika Jungbauer-Gans
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität,
Erlangen-Nürnberg
Stefan Alexander Rompf
Trust and Rationality
An Integrative Framework for
Trust Research
Stefan Alexander Rompf
Mannheim, Germany
Dissertation, Universität Mannheim, 2012
ISBN 978-3-658-07326-8 ISBN 978-3-658-07327-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-07327-5
Th e Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951336
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Acknowledgements
Writing this dissertation has been one of the most significant academic challeng-
es of my career. Without the support and encouragement of the following people
I could not have completed this work. To them I owe my deepest gratitude.
Above all, I am indebted to my supervisor Prof. Hartmut Esser, who granted
me both the freedom to explore this topic as I chose, as well as proper guidance
when needed. His sociological thought piqued my interest in analytical sociology
and likewise shaped the theoretical and methodological foundations of this work.
I am also deeply grateful to my co-supervisor Prof. Clemens Kroneberg, whose
constructive feedback was thought-provoking and helped me focus my ideas. His
practical advice proved invaluable in conducting this study and solving many
technical details.
I would also like to thank Prof. Edgar Erdfelder and the participants of the
“Research in Cognitive Psychology” graduate colloquium at the University of
Mannheim for their support and valuable expertise in developing the experiment.
Additionally, I am obliged to many more colleagues and friends for their encour-
agement and helpful advice: I would like to express my deepest gratitude to
Gerhard von Stockum, Patrick Küpper, Roman Schindel, Felix Hübner, Anne
Hartig and Alexander Khundongbam for useful comments and critique. I also
thank Steven Mulraney and Daniela Leifhelm for professional editing and proof-
reading support. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the
University of Mannheim research fund and the Mannheim Center for Doctoral
Studies in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (CDSS).
Lastly, I want to thank my parents for their constant encouragement and sup-
port and Katharina Steinmetz for her love, her confidence in my abilities, and for
always being there.

Stephan Alexander Rompf
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 15
1.1 Achievements and Enduring Questions in Trust Research ........... 15
1.2 Aim and Structure of this Work .................................................... 21
1.3 Summary of Empirical Results ..................................................... 25
2 The Concept of Trust........................................................................... 29
2.1 Objective Structure ....................................................................... 31
2.1.1 Constituents of Interpersonal Trust Relations ...................... 31
2.1.2 The Basic Trust Problem ...................................................... 33
2.1.3 Trust and Action ................................................................... 35
2.1.4 Social Uncertainty ................................................................ 36
2.1.5 Vulnerability ........................................................................ 38
2.2 Subjective Experience ................................................................... 39
2.2.1 The Phenomenology of Trust ............................................... 39
2.2.2 Expectations and Intentions ................................................. 41
2.2.3 About Risk ........................................................................... 48
2.2.4 Morals of Trust ..................................................................... 52
2.2.5 Feelings and Emotions ......................................................... 56
2.3 Conceptual Boundaries ................................................................. 63
2.3.1 Familiarity and Confidence .................................................. 63
2.3.2 Self-Trust ............................................................................. 66
2.3.3 System Trust ........................................................................ 67
2.3.4 Distrust ................................................................................. 69
2.4 From Structure to Experience ....................................................... 74
3 Origins and Explanations: An Interdisciplinary Approach ............. 79
3.1 Psychological Development .......................................................... 81
3.1.1 Learning and Socialization ................................................... 81
3.1.2 Basic Trust ........................................................................... 85
3.1.3 Individual Dispositions and Traits ....................................... 88
3.1.4 Models of Trust Development .............................................. 91
3.2 Sociological Perspectives .............................................................. 97
3.2.1 Functions of Trust ................................................................ 97
8 Table of Contents
3.2.2 Social Embeddedness ......................................................... 100
3.2.3 Social Capital and Reciprocity ........................................... 110
3.2.4 Trust and Culture................................................................ 112
3.3 The Economics of Trust .............................................................. 119
3.3.1 The Rational Choice Paradigm .......................................... 119
3.3.2 Modeling Trust ................................................................... 123
3.3.3 Encapsulated Interest ......................................................... 126
3.3.4 Contracts and Agency ........................................................ 132
3.3.5 Social Preferences .............................................................. 139
3.3.6 The Limits of Rational Choice ........................................... 147
3.4 Is Trust Rational? ........................................................................ 151
4 Trust and Adaptive Rationality ........................................................ 157
4.1 Different Routes to Trust ............................................................ 159
4.2 Adaptive Rationality ................................................................... 166
4.2.1 The Dual-Process Paradigm ............................................... 166
4.2.2 Context Dependence .......................................................... 174
4.2.3 Heuristics and Mental Shortcuts ........................................ 180
4.2.4 The Neuroscience of Trust ................................................. 185
4.3 Determinants of Information Processing .................................... 188
4.3.1 Opportunity ........................................................................ 189
4.3.2 Motivation .......................................................................... 190
4.3.3 Accessibility, Applicability, and Fit ................................... 191
4.3.4 Effort-Accuracy Tradeoffs ................................................. 192
4.4 Dual-Processing: A Critical Assessment .................................... 194
4.5 The Model of Frame Selection .................................................... 197
4.5.1 Modeling Adaptive Rationality .......................................... 197
4.5.2 The Automatic Mode ......................................................... 200
4.5.3 The Rational Mode ............................................................. 204
4.5.4 The Mode-Selection Threshold .......................................... 207
4.6 Explaining Conditional and Unconditional Trust ....................... 215
4.7 Theoretical and Empirical Implications ...................................... 225
Table of Contents 9
5 The Social Construction of Trust ..................................................... 235
5.1 Defining the Context ................................................................... 237
5.1.1 Symbolic Interaction .......................................................... 237
5.1.2 Language and other Signals ............................................... 241
5.1.3 Relational Communication ................................................. 247
5.1.4 Framing Relationships ....................................................... 249
5.2 Trust and Identity ........................................................................ 251
5.2.1 The Concept of Identity...................................................... 251
5.2.2 Categorization Processes .................................................... 255
5.2.3 Signaling Identities ............................................................. 260
5.3 Active Trust Production .............................................................. 264
5.3.1 Active Trust ........................................................................ 264
5.3.2 Impression Management .................................................... 266
5.3.3 Trust Management Strategies ............................................. 268
6 Developing an Empirical Test ........................................................... 273
6.1 Operationalization of Dependent and Independent Variables ..... 276
6.1.1 The Measurement of Trust ................................................. 276
6.1.2 Linking Transfer Decisions and Processing Modes ........... 280
6.1.3 Recording Decision Times ................................................. 282
6.1.4 Chronic Accessibility of Frames and Scripts ..................... 287
6.1.5 Intuition and the “Need for Cognition” .............................. 291
6.1.6 Control Variables ............................................................... 294
6.2 Experimental Design and Method ............................................... 295
6.2.1 Experimental Design .......................................................... 295
6.2.2 Context Treatment .............................................................. 297
6.2.3 Incentive Treatment ........................................................... 300
6.2.4 Participants ......................................................................... 303
6.2.5 Materials and Procedure ..................................................... 305
6.3 Empirical Hypotheses ................................................................. 306
6.3.1 Using the Model to Predict Trust ....................................... 306
6.3.2 Main Effects ....................................................................... 307
6.3.3 Interaction Effects .............................................................. 311
6.4 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................... 316
6.5 Analyzing Trust .......................................................................... 324
6.5.1 Model Specification ........................................................... 324
10 Table of Contents
6.5.2 Chronic Frame and Script Accessibility ............................. 329
6.5.3 NFC/FI as Mode-Selection Determinants .......................... 341
6.5.4 Discussion .......................................................................... 343
6.6 Analyzing Decision Times .......................................................... 347
6.6.1 Model Specification ........................................................... 347
6.6.2 Distribution of DT and Non-Parametric Analyses ............. 348
6.6.3 Chronic Frame and Script Accessibility ............................. 355
6.6.4 NFC/FI and Decision Times .............................................. 358
6.6.5 Discussion .......................................................................... 361
6.7 Exploring Subgroups .................................................................. 363
6.7.1 Low and High Accessibility ............................................... 363
6.7.2 Cognitive Types ................................................................. 364
6.7.3 Combining Accessibility and Processing Preferences........ 367
6.8 Summary of Empirical Results ................................................... 369
7 Synthesis: A Broad Perspective on Trust ........................................ 377
7.1 Trust, Framing, and Adaptive Rationality ................................... 379
7.2 The Role of Institutions and Culture ........................................... 383
7.3 Avenues for Future Trust Research............................................. 386
8 References .......................................................................................... 393