Universität zu Köln

Graczyk, Thomas ORCID: 0000-0002-8339-3350 (2025). I’d rather call you dumb than shady, or wouldn’t I? Interpersonal trust in morality versus competence. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Has a stranger ever approached you and asked to use your phone because theirs had died? And, although reluctantly, did you trust them and give it to them? Research suggests many people would do so out of respect for another person—an internalized norm discouraging openly questioning another’s moral character (Dunning et al., 2014, 2019). For this reason, people often place trust in others despite being skeptical about whether this will turn out well. This thesis investigates whether a similar motive also influences trust in others’ competence. In Chapter 2, Detlef Fetchenhauer, David Dunning, Daniel Ehlebracht, Thomas Schlösser, and I establish the foundation of this dissertation by introducing the competence game—a game-theoretic paradigm to investigate behavioral trust in others’ competence, closely modeled after the binary trust game (Berg et al., 1995; for related paradigms see Schwieren & Sutter, 2008; Zheng et al., 2023)—and comparing behavioral trust in competence with behavioral trust in morality and risk-taking in lotteries. In Chapter 3, I build upon the results and compare these behaviors with behavioral trust in various competence dimensions. In Chapters 4 and 5, Detlef Fetchenhauer and I examine emotional and cognitive processes involved in the respective trust decisions. In Chapter 6, I conducted a meta-analysis synthesizing the findings from Chapters 2 to 5. Throughout this dissertation, a consistent pattern emerged: participants showed less behavioral trust in others’ competence than in their morality under otherwise similar conditions (Chapters 2 to 6). This held true regardless of the competence type that was expected from a trustee (Chapter 3). Moreover, although participants were more willing to trust others’ competence than to take a similar risk in a (non-social) lottery (Chapter 2), the findings indicate that this was not because they were hesitant to signal to others that they might see them as incompetent (Chapter 5). Rather, it appears this behavior was the result of a desire to benefit others monetarily (Chapters 2 and 4) and by expectations of how their interaction partner might feel about the monetary outcomes (Chapter 4). Finally, Chapter 7 presents an integrative discussion of the empirical research from Chapters 2 to 6 and outlines directions for future research.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Graczyk, Thomas t.graczyk@uni-koeln.de orcid.org/0000-0002-8339-3350 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-788101
Date:	2025
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology and Social Psychology > Department of Economic and Social Psychology
Subjects:	Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Trust English Morality English Competence English
Date of oral exam:	11 July 2025
Referee:	Name Academic Title Fetchenhauer, Detlef Prof. Dr. Hölzl, Erik Prof. Dr. Dunning, David Prof. PhD
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/78810