Trust, Trustworthiness, and Age: Experimental Evidence
Journal of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 241
19 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2019 Last revised: 15 Jul 2022
Date Written: November 23, 2020
Abstract
Based on an incentivized non-anonymous trust game with 230 elementary school pupils aged between 6 and 11 years, we investigate the development of trust and trustworthiness across age groups. Trust increases with age, thereby increasing the profits of both the trustor and the trustee. The trustee keeps most of the profits. These results replicate the findings of Sutter and Kocher (2007) in that trust increases with age and trustworthiness exists in all age groups that are examined in our study; however, the amounts transferred between subjects in our experiment are substantially higher, a result which is likely to be driven by the non-anonymity in our setting.
Keywords: Trust, Trustworthiness, Age, Experiment
JEL Classification: C72, C91
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation