| Contact with others is an essential part of people’s lives and vital for social development.Contact with others,whether as a group or as an individual,is essential to human society.With the widespread emphasis on group and interpersonal relationships,relevant researches identified the positive effects of contact on improving intergroup and interpersonal relationships.However,the psychological mechanisms of how contact affects levels of trust and reciprocity are unclear.We conducted three studies to investigate the role of contact on trust and reciprocity.Study 1 used a questionnaire survey to reveal the partial mediating mechanism of social distance between contact quality and intergroup trust.To discover the influence of physical contact on trust was further controlled for touch quality and social distance,Study 2 explored the influence of physical contact on trust in real situations.Since trust investment is accompanied by reciprocal return,Study 3 examined the psychological mechanisms by which physical contact affects reciprocity.In addition,both Study 2 and Study 3 examined the role of participants’ gender.Study 1 explored how the quality of contact influenced intergroup trust in intergroup contact by the questionnaire survey.We used the questionnaire method and recruited 280 college students.We asked participants to report their contact with a specified group,and their perceived level of social distance and trust.The results showed that the pathway through which intergroup contact quality influenced intergroup trust was mediated by social distance.In other words,intergroup contact quality can directly predict the level of intergroup trust or predict the level of intergroup trust positively by predicting social distance.Study 2 further explored the mechanism of the effect of physical contact on trust by manipulating the type of physical contact through a field experiment.We used the classic trust game to measure the trust investment and recruited 48 university students as our participants.The results showed that:(1)Participants identified both handshakes and fist bumps as indicating cooperative intentions.(2)Compared with fist bump,handshake significantly promoted participants’ trust investment.(3)Among male participants,regardless of the gender of the action-giver,the level of trust was significantly increased after a handshake or fist bump.(4)Among female participants,the level of trust can be significantly improved after a handshake from both genders and a fist bump from the female action-giver.Based on Study 2,Study 3 measured participants’ reciprocity,aiming to further explore the mechanism of physical contact’s influence on reciprocity.The results showed that:(1)Participants identified both handshake and fist bump as indicating cooperative intentions,the results of study two are verified again.(2)Among male participants,receiving a handshake from both genders and a fist bump from male action-givers significantly increased the level of reciprocity.(3)Among female participants,receiving a fist bump from both genders and a handshake from the female action-givers significantly increased the level of reciprocity.In summary,Study 1 found the mediating role of social distance in contact quality and trust.Further,by controlling the two factors of contact quality and social distance,Studies 2and 3 of physical contact in real situations are designed to explore the psychological mechanism of contact for enhancing the level of trust and reciprocity.The study demonstrated that when it comes to intergroup or interpersonal contact,the first thing to do is ensure the contact is of quality.For closer physical contact,gender should be taken into account.The appropriate contact method helps enhance mutual trust and reciprocity.Future research should also explore the characteristics that influence interpersonal trust and reciprocity in terms of more physical contact to contribute more psychological wisdom to maintain harmonious social stability and enhance prosocial behavior. |
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