Ascribed status and perceived gender influences on trust decisions

Abstract

Everyday humans need to decide whom and why to trust to successfully navigate their social world. Investigations of trust during decision-making have begun to explore how various social characteristics of interaction partners influence trust in others. This paper aims to understand how the perceived gender and socioeconomic status (SES) of others influence subsequent trust. More specifically, using a modified Trust Game paradigm, we aimed to uncover how trust processes during decision-making may be simultaneously shaped by status and gender. Participants (n = 44) played 256 trials of the Trust Game with 64 unique partners who varied in perceived gender and assigned status. Each unique partner varying in gender and status was pre-determined to share back invested money twice and keep it twice during the game. During gameplay, participants demonstrated a bias to preferentially trust individuals of high status regardless of their perceived gender. These results provide further evidence of positive evaluative bias towards high SES individuals. ☐ Keywords: socioeconomic status, perceived gender, trust, decision-making