Russel Sage Foundation

In everyday interactions, people face the difficult decision of whether to trust others. But how do we decide whom to trust? How can we leave others with the impression that we deserve their trust?

R. Thomas Boone of St. John's University and Ross Buck of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, hypothesize that nonverbal cues are less easily faked than verbal communication, and therefore are important indicators of one’s trustworthiness. Using a prisoner's dilemma game where cooperation pays dividends and unrequited trust is punished, Boone and Buck will examine the degree to which players are willing to trust when they cannot see one another, and when they are allowed to communicate nonverbally through television monitors. The researchers will code the nonverbal expressions players give to one another, and will chart the degree to which subjects react to those signals with greater willingness to cooperate. They hope their analysis will identify the critical expressive cues used by players to determine when individuals intend to cooperate and when they do not. They will also test if people who are told that they will be observed by experimenters exhibit more cooperative behavior than others.