Iris Bohnet and Stephan Meier Abstract: We employ experiments to illustrate one factor contributing to the lack of distrust in the recent corporate scandals: Trust rather than no trust was the default. People are more trusting when the default is full trust than when it is no trust. We introduce a new game, the distrust game (DTG), where the default is full trust and find that in it, trust lev...

Extensive research has shown that certain interrogation techniques may lead to false confessions. Gudjonsson and MacKeith (1982) argued that the ‘memory distrust syndrome’ could underlie some of these false confessions. The present study examined the relation between memory distrust, false confessions, and several interrogation techniques, by accusing innocent undergraduate students (n 50) of e...

How trust affects health-care utilization is not well-understood, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This article focuses on China, a middle-income country where low trust in health-care settings has become a prominent issue, but actual levels of distrust and their implications for utilization are unknown. We conducted a nationally representative survey of the Chinese population (N...

Victim sensitivity (VS) is a personality trait conceptualized as the expectation of being exploited by others. Previous research has shown that one highly victim-sensitive group member can negatively impact entire group's outcomes. In present research, we investigate boundary conditions and mechanisms underlying this effect. Study 1 (N = 134 individuals, 40 groups) shows VS score most predicts ...

To trust someone is to have expectations of their behaviour; distrust often involves disappointed expectations. But healthy trust and distrust require a good understanding of which expectations are reasonable, and which are not. In this paper, I discuss the limits of trustworthiness by drawing on recent studies of trust in the context of defensive medicine, biobanking and cardiopulmonary resusc...

The adoption of Internet technologies by the small business sector is important to their ongoing survival. Yet, given the opportunities and benefits that Internet technologies can provide it has been shown that Australian small businesses are relatively slow in adopting them. This paper develops a model from recent literature on the facilitators and inhibitors to the adoption of Internet techno...

High rates of nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) from required childhood vaccinations have contributed to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and pertussis. Understanding the parental decision to obtain an NME could help health professionals and public health programs improve vaccination rates in areas with high vaccine refusal. Using a 2002-2003 multi-state survey of parents o...