How and why humans trust: A meta-analysis and elaborated model

Trust exerts an impact on essentially all forms of social relationships. It affects individuals in deciding whether and how they will or will not interact with other people. Equally, trust also influences the stance of entire nations in their mutual dealings. In consequence, understanding the factors that influence the decision to trust, or not to trust, is crucial to the full spectrum of social dealings. Here, we report the most comprehensive extant meta-analysis of experimental findings relating to such human-to-human trust. Our analysis provides a quantitative evaluation of the factors that influence interpersonal trust, the initial propensity to trust, as well as an assessment of the general trusting of others. Over 2,000 relevant studies were initially identified for potential inclusion in the meta-analysis. Of these, (n = 338) passed all screening criteria and provided therefrom a total of (n = 2,185) effect sizes for analysis. The identified dependent variables were trustworthiness, propensity to trust, general trust, and the trust that supervisors and subordinates express in each other. Correlational results demonstrated that a large range of trustor, trustee, and shared, contextual factors impact each of trustworthiness, the propensity to trust, and trust within working relationships. The emphasis in the present work on contextual factors being one of several trust dimensions herein originated. Experimental results established that the reputation of the trustee and the shared closeness of trustor and trustee were the most predictive factors of trustworthiness outcome. From these collective findings, we propose an elaborated, overarching descriptive theory of trust in which special note is taken of the theory’s application to the growing human need to trust in non-human entities. The latter include diverse forms of automation, robots, artificially intelligent entities, as well as specific implementations such as driverless vehicles to name but a few. Future directions as to the momentary dynamics of trust development, its sustenance and its dissipation are also evaluated.