Abstract
The trust levels that participants report on questionnaires may be biased by the participant’s motivation to appear like a trusting person. Few studies have found participants’ explicit trust to be inconsistent with their implicit trust. According to social cognition theory, the inconsistency between explicit and implicit trust indicates the importance of an implicit measurement of trust. However, trusting has been socially expected in previous research, which facilitates participants’ motivation to deliberate their responses on questionnaires. As a result, the inconsistency between explicit and implicit trust that previous research revealed may be context dependent. This study examined this possibility by investigating college students’ implicit trust, implicit distrust and explicit trust toward eight professions. The study found that 1) college students’ explicit trust did not correlate with their implicit trust; 2) participants’ implicit trust positively correlated with their implicit distrust which indicates that trust and distrust are two separate but linked constructs; 3) participants’ trust behavior tendencies can be predicted by implicit trust and implicit distrust. We conclude that the automatic attitude activation task is valid in implicit trust measurement, and implicit and explicit measurements of trust can and should complement each other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J., & Koc, Y. (2015). Exploring patterns of explicit and implicit anti-gay attitudes in Muslims and Atheists. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(6), 687–701. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2126.
Bago, B., & De, N. W. (2017). Fast logic?: Examing the time course assumption of dual process theory. Cognition, 158, 90–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.10.014.
Balliet, D., & Van Lange, P. (2013). Trust, conflict, and cooperation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 139(5), 1090–1112. https://doi.org/10.1037//a0030939.
Berg, J., Dickhaut, J., & McCabe, K. (1995). Trust, reciprocity, and social history. Games and Economic Behavior, 10(1), 122–142. https://doi.org/10.1006/game.1995.1027.
Bicchieri, C., Xiao, E., & Muldoon, R. (2011). Trustworthiness is a social norm, but trusting is not. Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 10(2), 170–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594X10387260.
Burns, C., & Conchie, S. (2010). Measuring implicit trust and automatic attitude activation. In F. Lyon, G. Möllering, M. Sanders, & T. Hatzakis (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods on Trust. London: Edward Elgar Publishers.
Burns, C., Mearns, K., & McGeorge, P. (2006). Explicit and implicit trust within safety culture. Risk Analysis, 26(5), 1139–1150. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00821.x.
Chi, L. (2013). Intergenerational transmission of role trust. Psychological Research, 6(5), 25–31.
Choi, B., Moon, H., & Nae, E. (2014). Cognition- and affect-based trust and feedback-seeking behavior: The roles of value, cost, and goal orientations. The Journal of Psychology, 148(5), 603–620. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2013.818928.
Conchie, T., & Charlton, A. (2011). Trust and distrust insafety leadership: Mirror reflections? Safety Science, 49(8–9), 1208–1214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.04.002.
Dermody, J., & Hanmer-Lloyd, S. (2004). Segmenting youth voting behaviour through trusting-distrusting relationships: A conceptual approach. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 9(3), 202–217. https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.248.
Ermisch, J., Gambetta, D., Laurie, H., Siedler, T., & Noah Uhrig, S. C. (2009). Measuring people's trust. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 172(4), 749–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2009.00591.x.
Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A. (2003). Implicit measures in social cognition research: Their meaning and use. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 297–327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145225.
Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2014). Implicit and explicit evaluation: A brief review of the associative-propositoinal evaluation model. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(8), 448–462. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12124.
Glaeser, E. L., Laibson, D. I., Scheinkman, J. A., & Soutter, C. L. (2000). Measuring trust. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), 811–846. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300554926.
Holm, H., & Nystedt, P. (2008). Trust in surveys and games: A methodological contribution on the influence of money and location. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29(4), 522–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2007.07.010.
Johnson, M. (2016). Relations between explicit and implicit self-esteem measures and self-presentation. Personality and Individual Differences, 95(2), 159–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.045.
Johnson, C., Belschner, L., Park, J. L., Stewart, K., Noyes, A., & Schaller, M. (2017). Mothers’ implicit and explicit attitudes and attributions in relation to self-reported parenting behavior. Parenting: Science and Practice, 17(1), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2016.1184954.
Kramer, R. M. (1999). Trust and distrust in organizations: Emerging perspectives, enduring questions. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 569–598. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.50.1.569.
Lewicki, R. J., McAllister, D. J., & Bies, R. J. (1998). Trust and distrust: New relationships and realities. Academy of Management Review, 23(3), 438–458. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1998.926620.
Lowry, P. B., Schuetzler, R. M., Giboney, J. S., & Gregory, T. A. (2015). Is trust always better than distrust? The potential value of distrust in newer virtual teams engaged in short-term decision-making. Group Decision & Negotiation, 24(4), 723–752. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-014-9410-x.
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709–734. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1995.9508080335.
Mesquita, L. F. (2007). Starting over when the bickering never ends: Rebuilding aggregate trust among clustered firms through trust facilitators. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 72–91. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2007.23463711.
MOHRRS. The catalogs of occupational. Retrieved Nov. 11, 2017, from ms.nvq.net.cn/nvqdbApp/htm/fenlei/index.html
Mosher. G. A. (2013). Trust, safety, and employee decision making: A review of research and discussion of future directions. The Journal of Technology. Management, and Applied Engineering, 29(1), 2–11.
Perugini, M., Richetin, J., & Zogmaister, C. (2010). Prediction of behavior. In B. Gawronski & B. K. Payne (Eds.), Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and application. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Priem, R. L., & Nystrom, P. C. (2011). Exploring the dynamics of workgroup fracture: Common ground, trust-with-trepidation, and warranted distrust. Journal of Management, 40(3), 764–795. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311412191.
Scheepers, D., & Derks, B. (2016). Revisiting social identity theory from a neuroscience perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11(6), 74–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.06.006.
Scheidegger, R., & Staerklé, C. (2011). Political trust and distrust in Switzerland: A normative analysis. Swiss Political Science Review, 17(2), 164–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1662-6370.2011.02010.x.
Schoorman, F. D., Mayer, R. C., & Davis, J. H. (2007). An integrative model of organizational trust: Past, present, and future. Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 344–354. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2007.24348410.
Singh, R., Wegener, D. T., Sankaran, K., Singh, S., Lin, P., Seow, M., et al. (2015). On the importance of trust in interpersonal attraction from attitude similarity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 32(6), 829–850. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515576993.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations. Chicago: Nelson Hall.
Wilson, M. C., & Scior, K. (2015). Implicit attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: Their relationship with explicit attitudes, social distance, emotions and contact. PLoS One, 10(9), e0137902. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137902.
Xin, Z., Dou, D., & Chen, C. (2013). Does economics encourage interpersonal distrust? Impact of economics major learning on undergraduates’ interpersonal trust. Advances in Psychological Science, 21(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2013.00031.
Xin, Z., & Xin, S. (2014). The influence of trustees’ social identity complexity on their trustworthiness. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 46(3), 415–426. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.00415.
Zhang, S., Xu, M., Li, X., Fang, H., Yang, S., & Liu, J. (2013). Implicit trust between the Uyghur and the Han in Xinjiang, China. PLoS One, 8(8), e71829. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071829.
Zhao, N., Zhou, M., Shi, Y., & Zhang, J. (2015). Face attractiveness in building trust: Evidence from measurement of implicit and explicit responses. Social Behavior and Personality, 43(5), 855–866. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.5.855.
Zheng, G., & Wong, L. (2006). The issue of rural-urban migrants in China: Theoretical judgment and policy frame. Journal of Renmin University of China, 6, 2–13.
Zohar, D., & Luria, G. (2005). A multilevel model of safety climate: Cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 616–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.616.
Zong, G., Li, P., & Sun, C. (2016). Study on ordination and changes of the occupational prestige since the reform and opening-up. Journal of Beijing University of Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 16(2), 11–17.
Funding
This study was funded by National Social Science Foundation of China (16CSH013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(XLS 45 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, G. Implicit measurement of trust in professions: Automatic attitude activation task. Curr Psychol 39, 1569–1577 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9856-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9856-0