Age- and Sex-Related Differences in Trust During Adolescence and Adulthood

The propensity to trust is thought to change across the lifespan and has been hypothesized to differ between sexes. However, the existing literature is inconclusive regarding age- and sex-related associations with trust toward others. We sought to specifically investigate age and sex differences in initial trust toward unknown others and in trust in repeated interactions with human and computer partners who either behaved trustworthy or untrustworthy. In the current study, cross-sectional data of six projects were pooled and included 304 participants aged 13–58 years (51% female). Initial trust toward a human partner showed a quadratic association with age. No age-related effect was observed for computer partners. During repeated interactions, older age was associated with more pronounced reductions in trust toward untrustworthy partners. No age effect was found for trust toward a trustworthy partner. Sex was unrelated to levels of trust in all analyses. Limitations of the study are the cross-sectional nature of the data, highlighting the need for longitudinal research to better understand developmental changes in trust.