Combining economic, social-psychological and sociological approaches to trust, this book provides a general theoretical framework to causally explain conditional and unconditional trust; it also presents an experimental test of the corresponding integrative model and its predictions. Broadly, it aims at advancing a cognitive turn in trust research by highlighting the importance of (1) an actor s context-dependent definition of the situation and (2) the flexible and dynamic degree of rationality involved. In essence, trust is as "multi-faceted" as there are cognitive routes that take us to the choice of a trusting act. Therefore, variable rationality has to be incorporated as an orthogonal dimension to the typological space of trust. The theory presents an analytically tractable model; the empirical test combines trust games, high- and low-incentive conditions, framing manipulations, and psychometric measurements, and is complemented by decision-time analyses.

Contents

• Objective Structure & Subjective Experience
• Trust and Rationality
• Explaining Conditional and Unconditional Trust
• Empirical Test and Synthesis

Target Groups

• Researchers and students of sociology, economics, social psychology, law, trust
• Organizational management and executives, organizational/marketing research, political consulting

About the Author

Dr. Stephan Alexander Rompf studied Sociology and Economics at the University of Mannheim and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India. He is currently working as a financial analyst.