Do Strong Family Ties Inhibit Trust?

John Ermisch (1) , Diego Gambetta (2)

1 University of Essex
2 Nuffield College

We provide direct evidence that people with strong family ties have a lower level of trust in strangers than people with weak family ties, and argue that this association is causal. We also investigate the mechanisms that underlie this effect, and provide evidence that these revolve around the level of : factors that limit exposure limit subjects' experience as well as motivation to deal with strangers. Our findings are based on experimental data derived from a new design of the 'trust game' combined with panel survey data, both drawn from a sample of the British population.

Mots clés: C93 D10; Trust; FamilyTies

Domaines: Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

John Ermisch, Diego Gambetta. Do Strong Family Ties Inhibit Trust?. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2010, 75 (3), pp.365. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2010.05.007⟩. ⟨hal-00849413⟩