Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: The Effects of Betrayal in Economic Decision Making

该奖项资助博士论文研究。这项研究使用实验室实验来调查社交交流环境中的背叛行为。具体地说，这些实验确定了对背叛的厌恶对是否信任贸易伙伴的决定产生的具体影响。在之前的研究中，背叛厌恶的影响与其他因素是分不开的，比如利他主义、风险偏好和损失厌恶，这些也会影响信任决策。另一个单独的系列实验考察了背叛知识造成的不利效用是否会对受托人的背叛意愿起到制约作用，以及当缺乏背叛知识时，信任和交换是否会崩溃。该项目的最后部分调查了背叛的动机。信任和背叛的决定存在于日常经济交流中。在这个项目中开发的实验设计可以在课堂上使用，帮助学生理解信任如何影响市场运行的方式。

This award funds doctoral dissertation research. The research uses laboratory experiments to investigate betrayal in social exchange environments. Specifically, the experiments identify the specific effects that aversion to betrayal has on decisions about whether to trust a trading partner. This is an advance on previous research, where the effects of betrayal aversion could not be separated from other factors such as altruism, risk preferences, and loss aversion that also affect trust decisions. A separate series of experiments examines whether the disutility caused by betrayal knowledge acts as a check on trustees' willingness to betray and whether trust and exchange breaks down when betrayal knowledge is absent. The final part of the project investigates the motives for betrayal.Trust and betrayal decisions are present in everyday economic exchanges. The experimental design developed in this project can be used in classrooms to help students understand how trust affects the way markets function.