Risk as a Determinant of Trust

I propose that the degree of trust an individual forms toward an interaction partner is a function of the degree of risk that is involved in the situation. Two experiments were conducted in order to test this hypothesis. Subjects had to decide whether they would lend either an inexpensive scientific book (low-risk condition) or an expensive scientific book (high-risk condition) to a fictitious male fellow student. After subjects had made their decision, they had to indicate the degree of trust they had formed toward the interaction partner by means of a scale that referred to similar trust-related interactions. The hypothesis was clearly confirmed: The degree of trust was higher in the high-risk condition than in the low-risk condition. Results are explained in terms of self-perception theory. Implications are discussed.