ORIGINSOFTRUST · The Psychological Origins of Trust-Based Cooperation

The Psychological Origins of Trust-Based Cooperation

People engage in cooperation on a daily basis. However, doing so is inherently risky since by participating we make ourselves dependent on the contributions of other people. A key psychological tool for cooperative partners to manage these risks is to build up trust. To date, little is known about developmental emergence of trust-based cooperation humans. To fill this gap, I conducted behavioral experiments with young children and, to a lesser degree, chimpanzees – human’s closest evolutionary relative – to shed light on the cognitive building blocks required for trust-based cooperation, the decision-making processes involved, as well as the role children’s social environment plays in its emergence. The project consisted of six objectives: The origins of trust in children (Objective 1) and chimpanzees (Objective 2), the role of group membership in children’s trust (Objective 3), trust responsiveness (Objective 4), choosing trustworthy partners (Objective 5), and ecologically rational decision-making in children (Objective 6). The results suggest that trust in others’ cooperative proclivities is an early emerging tendency which children apply broadly to other people, including strangers and outgroup members. Concurrently, however, we identified early developmental changes: At age 6 (but not age 4), children show clear signs of trust responsiveness such that they act prosocially towards individuals who had previously trusted them. By age 6, children also flexibly adapt who they trust to be good cooperative partners depending on others’ skills and the cooperative task demands. Finally, the results indicate that we share important trust-related cognitive building blocks with chimpanzees, suggesting that trust-based cooperation may have deep phylogenetic roots. These findings contribute to our understanding by what mechanisms individuals overcome the social risks inherent in cooperative activities and thus have the potential to help further cooperation in society.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union