Abstract
Evolutionary psychologists have highlighted the importance of trust in human social relations. The impact of an incident of food theft on impressions of both “victims” and perpetrators was investigated using videos of six mixed-sex pairs of adult actors eating in a restaurant. These were viewed by 191 adults who then provided their impressions including ratings of the actors on Trustworthiness and Sneakiness scales. Seeing a single incident of theft of a small portion of another’s food was sufficient to alter impressions of the perpetrators’ trustworthiness and sneakiness, as well as hiring decisions and judgements of relationship fidelity and self-confidence. Being a victim of food theft had no effect on these but did lower ratings of the male victims’ confidence. The results demonstrate the power of a minor social transgression to alter impressions of trustworthiness and other traits.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the volunteer actors for their assistance in filming the video segments, O.M. Fox for video editing, and D. D. Moore for assistance with statistical analysis. The following students helped with data collection: R. Doerr, K.E. Carey, K. A. Kooi, S. Strand, A. Hess, K. C. Sawyer-DeForest, and T.V. Martins.
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Alley, T.R. Effects of Minor Food Theft on Social Perceptions of Culprits and Victims. Evolutionary Psychological Science 4, 90–97 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0116-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0116-6