Lecture 6 concepts

Question 1

Different approaches to the study of trust

Answer 1

1. The dispositional approach: study how individuals differ in trust behaviour => trust propensity (e.g., personality characteristics)
2. The relational approach: studying how factors such as interdependence, cooperation, and conflict between trustor-and-trustee are related to trust behaviour (e.g., game theory, prisoner’s dilemma)
3. The perception approach: focus on how trustworthiness is perceived and judged, based on the characteristics of trustee => trustworthiness

Question 2

The Big Five personality traits

Answer 2

1. Neuroticism: (depressivity/emotional lability/shamefulness - fearlessness / shamelessness)
2. Extraversion: (excitement seeking/attention seeking - social withdrawal / detached coldness)
3. Openness (magical thinking, eccentricity - inflexible, close-minded)
4. Agreeableness (submissiveness, selflessness, gullibility - deceitfulness, manipulativeness, callousness)
5. Conscientiousness (perfectionism, workaholism - distractibility, irresponsibility, rashness)

Question 3

Trustor’s propensity

Answer 3

Extraversion: measures a tendency to seek stimulation in the external world, the company of others, and to express positive emotions

Neuroticism: the tendency to experience mood swings and emotions such as guilt, anger, anxiety and depression. (El Kutzooi - The Egg Slayer)

Especially neuroticism and extraversion seem to be related to the willingness to accept vulnerability.

Question 4

Hopkins effect

Answer 4

The ‘cold stare, no blink’ technique. Not blinking made Hopkins more threatening.

Question 5

Trust Game

Answer 5

You have one choice, in front of you is a machine: if you put a coin in the machine, the other player gets three coins - and vice versa. You both can choose to either cooperate (put in a coin) or cheat (don’t put in a coin). In 30 cases, players always send money. Similar experiments show the same thing, where only 11% of players did not put in a coin.

Question 6

Tit-for-tat heuristic

Answer 6

Simple game theory strategy. In the first round: always cooperate. Subsequently, keep a memory of size one about partner’s (opponent’s) previous behaviour. Lastly, imitate your partner’s last behaviour.

Question 7

Cesare Lombroso’s criminal physiognomy (1876)

Answer 7

Suggests that criminality is inherited and that someone “born criminal” could be identified by the way they look. No longer credible.