Are there sex differences in trust levels?

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1042.2021.02236

Abstract

Abstract:

Academics have different opinions regarding the sex difference in trust level. One group of researchers holds the view of sex differences in trust levels, where risk preference theory supports the view that men have a higher level of trust, and the advantages over the women in the prosocial field provide support for women to have a higher level of trust. However, another group of scholars believe that there is no sex difference in trust level, which is based on the gender similarities hypothesis. Although the views of the two groups and their theoretical foundations have been supported to a certain extent; however, they need to be comprehensively analyzed and clarified about their rationality from the perspectives of research paradigms and cultural differences between the East and the West. Future research use trust measurement methods need to be more rationally, then clarify the sex characteristics of trust in the dynamic process of change, and deepen the research on the neurophysiological mechanism of the trust difference between the sexes, thus fundamentally better reveal the issue of sex differences in trust levels.

Key words: trust, sex, trust game

CLC Number:

B849: C91

QU Jiachen, GONG Zhe. Are there sex differences in trust levels?[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2021, 29(12): 2236-2245.

References 85

[1]	李彩娜, 孙颖, 拓瑞, 刘佳. (2016). 安全依恋对人际信任的影响: 依恋焦虑的调节效应. 心理学报, 48(8), 989-1001.
[2]	刘广增, 胡天强, 张大均. (2016). 中学生人际关系及其与自尊、人际信任的关系. 中国临床心理学杂志, 24(2), 349-355.
[3]	贡喆, 唐玉洁, 刘昌. (2021). 信任博弈范式真的能测量信任吗. 心理科学进展, 29(1), 19-30.
[4]	王沛, 梁雅君, 李宇, 刘雍鹤. (2016). 特质认知和关系认知对人际信任的影响. 心理科学进展, 24(5), 815-823.
[5]	魏真瑜, 邓湘树, 赵治瀛. (2021). 亲社会行为中的从众效应. 心理科学进展, 29(3), 531-539.
[6]	吴继霞, 黄希庭. (2012). 诚信结构初探. 心理学报, 44(3), 354-368.
[7]	辛自强, 周正. (2012). 大学生人际信任变迁的横断历史研究. 心理科学进展, 20(3), 344-353.
[8]	岳童, 黄希庭, 刘光远. (2017). 催产素影响人类社会认知的性别差异. 心理科学进展, 25(12), 2157-2167.
[9]	严瑜, 吴霞. (2016). 从信任违背到信任修复: 道德情绪的作用机制. 心理科学进展, 24(4), 633-642.
[10]	杨中芳, 彭泗清. (1999). 中国人人际信任的概念化: 一个人际关系的观点. 社会学研究, 2(2), 1-21.
[11]	张宁, 张雨青, 吴坎坎. (2011). 信任的心理和神经生理机制. 心理科学, 34(5), 1137-1143.
[12]	张蔚, 张振, 高宇, 段华平, 吴兴南. (2016). 经济决策中人际信任博弈的理论模型与脑机制. 心理科学进展, 24(11), 1780-1791.
[13]	郑晓莹, 彭泗清, 彭璐珞. (2015). “达”则兼济天下? 社会比较对亲社会行为的影响及心理机制. 心理学报, 47(2), 243-250.
[14]	Apicella, C. L., Dreber, A., & Mollerstrom, J.(2014). Salivary testosterone change following monetary wins and losses predicts future financial risk-taking. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 39, 58-64. doi: S0306-4530(13)00344-2 pmid: 24275004
[15]	Balliet, D., Li, N. P., Macfarlan, S. J., & van Vugt, M.(2011). Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas. Psychological Bulletin, 137(6), 881-909. doi: 10.1037/a0025354 pmid: 21910518
[16]	Barraza, J. A., McCullough, M. E., Ahmadi, S., & Zak, P. J.(2011). Oxytocin infusion increases charitable donations regardless of monetary resources. Hormones & Behavior, 60(2), 148-151.
[17]	Bauer, P. C., & Freitag, M.(2018). Measuring trust. In E. Uslaner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of social and political trust (pp.15-36). Oxford Press.
[18]	Binzel, C., & Fehr, D.(2013). Social distance and trust: Experimental evidence from a slum in Cairo. Journal of Development Economics, 103, 99-106. doi: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.01.009 URL
[19]	Brülhart, M., & Usunier, J. C.(2012). Does the trust game measure trust? Economics Letters, 115(1), 20-23. doi: 10.1016/j.econlet.2011.11.039 URL
[20]	Buchan, N. R., Croson, R. T. A., & Solnick, S.(2008). Trust and gender: An examination of behavior and beliefs in the investment game. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 68(3-4), 466-476.
[21]	Castle, E., Eisenberger, N. I., Seeman, T. E., Moons, W. G., Boggero, I. A., Grinblatt, M. S., & Taylor, S. E.(2012). Neural and behavioral bases of age differences in perceptions of trust. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(51), 20848-20852. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1218518109 URL
[22]	Charness, G., & Gneezy, U.(2012). Strong evidence for gender differences in risk taking. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 83(1), 50-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.06.007 URL
[23]	Chaudhuri, A., & Gangadharn, L.(2002). Gender differences in trust and reciprocity. Department of Economics Working Papers, 45(1), 81-95.
[24]	Choleris, E., Devidze, N., Kavaliers, M., & Pfaff, D. W.(2008). Steroidal/neuropeptide interactions in hypothalamus and amygdala related to social anxiety. Progress in Brain Research, 170, 291-303. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6123(08)00424-X pmid: 18655890
[25]	Conway, C. A., Jones, B. C., DeBruine, L. M., Welling, L. L. M., Law Smith, M. J., Perrett, D. I., … Al-Dujaili, E. A. S.(2007). Salience of emotional displays of danger and contagion in faces is enhanced when progesterone levels are raised. Hormones and Behavior, 51(2), 202-206. pmid: 17150220
[26]	Cox, J. C., & Deck, C. A.(2006). When are women more generous than men? Economic Inquiry, 44(4), 587-598. doi: 10.1093/ei/cbj042 URL
[27]	Croson, R., & Gneezy, U.(2009). Gender differences in preferences. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(2), 448474.
[28]	Derks, J., Lee, N. C., & Krabbendam, L.(2014). Adolescent trust and trustworthiness: Role of gender and social value orientation. Journal of Adolescence, 37(8), 1379-1386. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.09.014 URL
[29]	de Wilde, T. R. W., Ten Velden, F. S., & de Dreu, C. K. W.(2017). The neuropeptide oxytocin enhances information sharing and group decision making quality. Scientific Reports, 7, 40622. doi: 10.1038/srep40622 pmid: 28074896
[30]	Dittrich, M.(2015). Gender differences in trust and reciprocity: Evidence from a large-scale experiment with heterogeneous subjects. Applied Economics, 47(36), 3825-3838. doi: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1019036 URL
[31]	Eagly, A. H.(2009). The his and hers of prosocial behavior: An examination of the social psychology of gender. American Psychologist, 64(8), 644-658. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.64.8.644 URL
[32]	Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W.(1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54(6), 408-423. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.54.6.408 URL
[33]	Falk, A., & Hermle, J.(2018). Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality. Science, 362(6412), eaas9899. doi: 10.1126/science.aas9899 URL
[34]	Fehr, E.(2009). On the economics and biology of trust. Journal of the European Economic Association, 7(2-3), 235-266.
[35]	Filippin, A., & Crosetto, P.(2016). A reconsideration of gender differences in risk attitudes. Management Science, 62(11), 3138-3160. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2015.2294 URL
[36]	Furumo, K., & Pearson, J. M.(2007). Gender-based communication styles, trust, and satisfaction in virtual teams. Journal of Information, Information Technology, and Organizations (Years 1-3), 2, 047-060.
[37]	Garbarino, E., & Slonim, R.(2009). The robustness of trust and reciprocity across a heterogeneous U.S. population. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 69(3), 226-240. doi: 10.1016/j.jebo.2007.06.010 URL
[38]	Haselhuhn, M. P., Kennedy, J. A., Kray, L. J., van Zant, A. B., & Schweitzer, M. E.(2015). Gender differences in trust dynamics: Women trust more than men following a trust violation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 104-109. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.09.007 URL
[39]	Heany, S. J., Terburg, D., Stein, D. J., van Honk, J., & Bos, P. A.(2020). Neural responses in the pain matrix when observing pain of others are unaffected by testosterone administration in women. Experimental Brain Research, 238(3), 751-759. doi: 10.1007/s00221-020-05749-3 URL
[40]	Holden, S. T., & Tilahun, M.(2018). Gender differences in risk tolerance, trust and trustworthiness: Are they related? Norwegian University of Life Sciences Centre for Land Tenure Studies, 18, 1-27.
[41]	Hong, K., & Bohnet, I.(2007). Status and distrust: The relevance of inequality and betrayal aversion. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28(2), 197-213. doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2006.06.003 URL
[42]	Hu, H.(2007). A comparative study of the effects of Taiwan- United States employee categorization on supervisor trust. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 35(2), 229-242. doi: 10.2224/sbp.2007.35.2.229 URL
[43]	Hyde, J. S.(2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581-592. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581 URL
[44]	Irwin, K., & Berigan, N.(2013). Trust, culture, and cooperation: A social dilemma analysis of pro-environmental behaviors. The Sociological Quarterly, 54(3), 424-449. doi: 10.1111/tsq.12029 URL
[45]	Irwin, K., Edwards, K., & Tamburello, J. A.(2015). Gender, trust and cooperation in environmental social dilemmas. Social Science Research, 50, 328-342. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.09.002 pmid: 25592940
[46]	Kanagaretnam, K., Mestelman, S., Nainar, K., & Shehata, M.(2009). The impact of social value orientation and risk attitudes on trust and reciprocity. Journal of Economic Psychology, 30(3), 368-380. doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2008.12.003 URL
[47]	Kiyonari, T., Yamagishi, T., Cook, K. S., & Cheshire, C.(2006). Does trust beget trustworthiness? Trust and trustworthiness in two games and two cultures: A research note. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69(3), 270-283. doi: 10.1177/019027250606900304 URL
[48]	Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E.(2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435(7042), 673-676. doi: 10.1038/nature03701 URL
[49]	Krueger, F., Grafman, J., & McCabe, K.(2008). Neural correlates of economic game playing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1511), 3859-3874. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0165 URL
[50]	Lemmers-Jansen, I. L. J., Fett, A.-K. J., Shergill, S. S., van Kesteren, M. T. R., & Krabbendam, L.(2019). Girls-boys: An investigation of gender differences in the behavioral and neural mechanisms of trust and reciprocity in adolescence. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13, 780-790.
[51]	Lemmers-Jansen, I. L. J., Krabbendam, L., Veltman, D. J., & Fett, A.-K. J.(2017). Boys vs. girls: Gender differences in the neural development of trust and reciprocity depend on social context. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 235-245. doi: S1878-9293(16)30122-0 pmid: 28258836
[52]	Levine, E. E., & Schweitzer, M. E.(2015). Prosocial lies: When deception breeds trust. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 126, 88-106. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.10.007 URL
[53]	Li, C., Turmunkh, U., & Peter, P. W.(2019). Trust as a decision under ambiguity. Experimental Economics, 22(1), 51-75. doi: 10.1007/s10683-018-9582-3 URL
[54]	Li, T., & Fung, H. H.(2013). Age differences in trust: An investigation across 38 countries. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(3), 347-355.
[55]	Mac Giolla, E., & Kajonius, P. J.(2019). Sex differences in personality are larger in gender equal countries: Replicating and extending a surprising finding. International Journal of Psychology, 54(6), 705-711. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12529 pmid: 30206941
[56]	Macko, A.(2020). Gender differences in trust, reactions to trust violation, and trust restoration. Decyjze, 33, 55-73.
[57]	Markowitz, H.(1952). Portfolio selection. Journal of Finance, 7(1), 77-91.
[58]	Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D.(1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709-734. doi: 10.2307/258792 URL
[59]	Navarro-Carrillo, G., Valor-Segura, I., & Moya, M.(2018). Do you trust Strangers, close acquaintances, and members of your ingroup? Differences in trust based on social class in Spain. Social Indicators Research, 135(2), 585-597. doi: 10.1007/s11205-016-1527-7 URL
[60]	Neufang, S., Specht, K., Hausmann, M., Gunturkun, O., Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Fink, G. R., & Konrad, K.(2009). Sex differences and the impact of steroid hormones on the developing human brain. Cerebral Cortex, 19(2), 464-473. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn100 URL
[61]	Pletzer, J., Balliet, D., Joireman, J., Kuhlman, D., Voelpel, S., & van Lange, P.(2018). Social value orientation, expectations, and cooperation in social dilemmas: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Personality, 32(1), 62-83. doi: 10.1002/per.2139 URL
[62]	Rapoport, A., & Chammah, A. M.(1965). Sex differences in factors contributing to the level of cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(6), 831-838. pmid: 5838486
[63]	Rodrigo-González, A., Caballer-Tarazona, M., & García- Gallego, A.(2019). Active learning on trust and reciprocity for undergraduates. Sustainability, 11(16), 4399. doi: 10.3390/su11164399 URL
[64]	Romano, A., Balliet, D., Yamagishi, T., & Liu, J. H.(2017). Parochial trust and cooperation across 17 societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(48), 12702-12707. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1712921114 URL
[65]	Rousseau, D. M., Sitkin, S. B., Burt, R. S., & Camerer, C.(1998). Introduction to special topic forum: Not so different after all: A cross-discipline view of trust. The Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 393-404. doi: 10.5465/amr.1998.926617 URL
[66]	Sapienza, P., Toldra-Simats, A., & Zingales, L.(2013). Understanding trust. The Economic Journal, 123(573), 1313-1332. doi: 10.1111/ecoj.12036 URL
[67]	Schmitt, D. P., Long, A. E., McPhearson, A., O'Brien, K., Remmert, B., & Shah, S. H.(2017). Personality and gender differences in global perspective. International Journal of Psychology, 52(S1), 45-56. doi: 10.1002/ijop.2017.52.issue-S1 URL
[68]	Shao, B.(2019). Moral anger as a dilemma? An investigation on how leader moral anger influences follower trust. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(3), 365-382. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.10.002 URL
[69]	Sutter, M., & Kocher, M. G.(2007). Trust and trustworthiness across different age groups. Games and Economic Behavior, 59(2), 364-382. doi: 10.1016/j.geb.2006.07.006 URL
[70]	Thielmann, I., & Hilbig, B. E.(2015). Trust: An integrative review from a person-situation perspective. Review of General Psychology, 19(3), 249-277. doi: 10.1037/gpr0000046 URL
[71]	Thorndike, E. L.(1914). Educational psychology (Vol. 3). New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
[72]	Uslaner, E. M.(2002). The moral foundations of trust. Cambridge University Press.
[73]	van de Groep, S., Meuwese, R., Zanolie, K., Güroğlu, B., & Crone, E. A.(2020). Developmental changes and individual differences in trust and reciprocity in adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30(S1), 192-208. doi: 10.1111/jora.v30.s1 URL
[74]	van den Akker, O. R., van Assen, M. A., van Vugt, M., & Wicherts, J. M.(2020). Sex differences in trust and trustworthiness: A meta-analysis of the trust game and the gift-exchange game. Journal of Economic Psychology, 81, 102329. doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2020.102329 URL
[75]	van den Bos, W., Westenberg, M., van Dijk, E., & Crone, E. A.(2010). Development of trust and reciprocity in adolescence. Cognitive Development, 25(1), 90-102. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.07.004 URL
[76]	van Hoorn, A.(2015). Individualist-collectivist culture and trust radius: A multilevel approach. Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology, 46(2), 269-276. doi: 10.1177/0022022114551053 URL
[77]	Warner-Søderholm, G., Bertsch, A., Sawe, E., Lee, D., Wolfe, T., Meyer, J., … Fatilua, U. N.(2018). Who trusts social media? Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 303-315. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.026 URL
[78]	Wu, Y., Hall, A. S. M., Siehl, S., Grafman, J., & Krueger, F.(2020). Neural signatures of gender differences in interpersonal trust. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 225. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00225 URL
[79]	Yamagishi, T., Akutsu, S., Cho, K., Inoue, Y., Li, Y., & Matsumoto, Y.(2015). Two-component model of general trust: Predicting behavioral trust from attitudinal trust. Social Cognition, 33(5), 436-458. doi: 10.1521/soco.2015.33.5.436 URL
[80]	Yamagishi, T., & Yamagishi, M.(1994). Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion, 18(2), 129-166. doi: 10.1007/BF02249397 URL
[81]	Zeffane, R.(2015). Gender, trust and risk-taking: A literature review and proposed research model. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 9(3), 221-232. doi: 10.1108/JEC-03-2014-0004 URL
[82]	Zeffane, R.(2018). Do age, work experience and gender affect individuals' propensity to trust others? An exploratory study in the United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 38(3/4), 210-223. doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-07-2017-0093 URL
[83]	Zeffane, R.(2020). Gender, individualism-collectivism and individuals' propensity to trust: A comparative exploratory study. Journal of Management & Organization, 26(4), 445-459.
[84]	Zhao, N., & Zhang, J.(2016). Gender differences in trusting strangers: Role of the target's gender. PsyCh Journal, 5(2), 83-91. doi: 10.1002/pchj.120 pmid: 26774437
[85]	Zinchenko, Y. P., Zotova, O. Yu., & Tarasova, L. V.(2017). Specifics of interpersonal trust among people with different gender identities. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 10(2), 134-148.