An Experimental Study Of Time Pressure And Trust Behavior

Trust plays a very important role in human economic life.Trust is an important determinant of the difference in economic growth between countries and regions.For a long time,many economists are concerned about the study of trust,from the influencing factors of trust to the economic consequences of trust.In recent years,exploring the nature of human prosociality has been the research direction of many scholars.Many scholars have explored the nature of prosociality from the perspective of time pressure,but the impact of time pressure on trust remains uninvestigated.At the same time,modern society has stepped into a fastpaced society.People are facing time pressure in life and work.This paper attempts to explore whether time pressure affects trust behavior and its internal mechanism.This paper helps people understand the nature of trust with a new research perspective and provide theoretical and experimental evidence for a comprehensive understanding of trust.The study analyzes and examines the impact of time pressure on trust behavior from three perspectives: theory,model and experiment.First of all,this paper analyzes the basis of time pressure affecting trust and the internal mechanism from theories and models.Based on the guilt-aversion model,the study examines how time pressure on the principal and the agent influences trust levels.Second,this paper conducts two experiments to test the theory from three aspects:(1)Whether the principal’s time pressure affects trust;(2)The internal mechanism of the principal’s time pressure affecting trust;(3)Whether the agent’s time pressure affects trust.Meanwhile,the study examines the heterogeneity of the impact of time pressure on trust for both the principal’s time pressure and the agent’s time pressure.The results show that:(1)First,the principal’s time pressure reduces trust;Second,time pressure also affects the agent’s promise behavior,and the agent can correctly anticipate that the trust will decrease when the principal is in time pressure.And accordingly,the agent will increase the promise-making behavior.Third,time pressure improves the efficiency of communication between the principal and the agent.(2)We obtain the principal and the agent’s belief through the belief derivation experiment to test the internal mechanism.The results show that: time pressure does reduce the principal’s first-order belief,which confirms that time pressure affects the principal’s beliefs and then affects their decisions.(3)Women’s trust level decreased significantly under time pressure,and their trustworthiness also decreased significantly;while men’s trust level did not differ significantly under time pressure,but time pressure increased their trustworthiness level.(4)There is individual heterogeneity in the effect of time pressure on trust.The cognitive response test positively regulates the relationship between time pressure and trust,that is,the higher the CRT score,the greater the individual’s trust level is affected by time pressure;The social value orientation negatively regulates the relationship between time pressure and trust,that is,the higher the SVO,the less the time pressure effect on trust;The honesty and humility negatively regulates the relationship between time pressure and trust,that is,the higher the score of honesty and humility,the less time pressure effect on trust;Ambiguity aversion positively regulates the relationship between time pressure and trust,that is,the more ambiguity aversion,the greater the influence of time pressure on trust.(5)The time pressure on agent reduces the trust level of the principal.The cognitive response test regulates the relationship between time pressure and trust levels.The ambiguity aversion has a positive moderating effect on time pressure and trust levels,while the moderating effects of social value orientation and honesty-humility traits on time pressure and trust levels are not significant.The study has important theoretical and practical significance.First,we examine the cognitive basis of trust from the perspective of cognitive dual-processing,which can provide a more solid basis for trust theory.The laboratory experiments provide empirical support to verify,explore and explain theoretical models of human trust behavior and trustworthy behavior by revealing the connection between time pressure and human trust behavior.Second,the study explores the internal mechanism of time pressure affecting people’s trust behavior from the perspective of beliefdependent motivation.Time pressure affects the people’s behavioral decision-making by changing people’s beliefs and reliance on motivation.The study provides a new empirical basis for the nature of trust behavior.Third,this study has made meaningful explorations on the time pressure environmental factors of trust behavior,and provides empirical support to understand the environmental factors of trust behavior.