Experimentally induced social inclusion influences behavior on trust games

Abstract

Being socially excluded is profoundly distressing. It is unknown whether exclusion renders victims vulnerable to manipulation or whether excluded individuals become more cautious about being exploited by, and less trusting of, the person who excluded them. We investigated this by testing how much participants trust people who have socially included or excluded them. Inclusion and exclusion were manipulated using Cyberball (a virtual ball game) and, after playing Cyberball, participants played trust games. In a Reputation group participants played trust games with players from Cyberball; in the No Reputation group, participants played with strangers. Inclusion/exclusion manipulation interacted with Group such that participants in the Reputation group trusted individuals who included them more than those who excluded them, whereas inclusion/exclusion made no difference to trust in the No-Reputation group. Our findings suggest that exclusion does not increase gullibility, but that reputation is transferred from a social to an economic setting so that social inclusion increases trust.

Keywords:

• Trust
• Behavioral game theory
• Trust game
• Cyberball
• Ostracism
• Cooperative behavior
• Prisoner's dilemma
• Social exclusion
• Social cognition
• Social influence

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Royal Society, UK. SJB is a Royal Society University Research Fellow. We are grateful to N. Wright for his input in the early stages of this study.