Caring About (COVID-19 Related) Social Issues Signals Trustworthiness: Direct and Conceptual Replication of Zlatev (2019)

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Angela R. Dorrough - , University of Cologne (Author)
  • Nathalie Bick - , FernUniversität in Hagen (Author)
  • Lukas Bring - , University of Cologne (Author)
  • Caroline Brockers - , University of Cologne (Author)
  • Charlotte Butz - , University of Cologne (Author)
  • Iris K. Schneider - , University of Cologne (Author)

Abstract

With three convenient samples (n = 1,087) and one sample representative for the German population in terms of age and gender (n = 210), we replicate research by Zlatev (2019) showing that perceived benevolence-based and perceived integrity-based trustworthiness increase with a target's level of caring about a social issue. We show that these results generalize to various issues ranging from environmental issues (i.e., installation of wind turbines in the North Sea) to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., online teaching to prevent the spread of the virus). Furthermore, we provide initial behavioral evidence for this effect by showing that transfers in a trust game increase with a target's caring about a social issue. All results are robust for age, gender, and social issue. To provide best estimates for the effect of a target's level of caring on perceived trustworthiness, we report results of three mini meta-analyses including our findings as well as the findings of the original research. Policy implications are discussed.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number31036
JournalCollabra: Psychology
Volume8
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2022
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85123187807

Keywords

Library keywords