The Handbook of Behavioral Operations

14Trust and Trustworthiness

Özalp Özer¹ and Yanchong Zheng²

¹ Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

² Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

We all know that trust and trustworthiness matter in almost all aspects of our relationships, business or otherwise. Our friends, foes, family, colleagues, sociologists, management scientists, and even economists recognize this fact (even though some may not acknowledge it). We innately believe being trustworthy is a virtue (or, at least, are taught to think so) and have learned whether and when to trust (to the best of our abilities). And when we trust, we put ourselves in a vulnerable situation (i.e. we take a risk) based upon the expectation that the person we trusted (trustee) behaves in a positive way that is rewarding to us (as trustors). So, we make a risky “investment” of some sort and face uncertainty in the outcome (and may even regret later) when we trust. We also perhaps adjust our trusting and trustworthy behavior depending on the target of our trust, given the relevant context. For example, we may trust our significant other that he or she will return the $250 (or the car) we lend him or her (perhaps with an implicit or explicit expectation of a positive return beyond the actual loan). We probably would not ask him or her to write a contract before lending our car. However, most of us would perhaps require a marriage certificate ...