Is Trustworthiness Written on the Face?
Discussion Paper of the Institute for Organisational Economics 2/2017
36 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2017 Last revised: 8 Apr 2017
Date Written: February 1, 2017
Abstract
Trust is an important driver of economic transactions, but how do people decide whom to trust? We conduct an experiment to investigate whether people are able to predict trustworthiness by judging the face of a stranger. The behavior of the second player in the Trust Game is used as a measure of trustworthiness. Other subjects assess the trustworthiness of the second players of the Trust Game in the second stage using standardized photos of their faces. We find no significant interrelation in our statistical estimations between trustworthiness ratings and the behavior of the examined players. Surprisingly, players that were rated as more attractive sent back significantly less in the Trust Game.
Keywords: attractiveness, experiment, trust, trustworthiness, Trust Game
JEL Classification: C72, C91, D03, D81, J71
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation