Trust, Trustworthiness, and Age: Experimental Evidence

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