Attitudinal and Behavioral Measures of Trust: A New Comparison

Abstract

We revisit the question first raised by Glaeser, et al. (2000): do attitudinal survey questions predict trusting actions in games? We design an experiment where the same set of subjects participates in a series of surveys and games, all meant to capture trust. We find that the answer to the above question is not straightforward. When we do not control for other-regarding preferences, we are able to replicate others' findings that attitudinal questions about trust do not predict trusting actions, but are good predictors of trustworthiness. On the other hand, when we control for altruism using the triadic design of Cox (2004), we find that most attitudinal questions are good predictors of trusting actions. In addition, some survey questions also predict behavior in binary trust games and cooperation in the public goods game. Our results add doubt to the general consensus that seems to have emerged among experimental economists that attitudinal survey questions are poor predictors of trusting actions in games.

Keywords: Surveys, Experiments, Trust, Reciprocity, Public goods

JEL Classification: C72, C80, C91, H41