How activating cognitive content shapes trust: A subliminal priming study

• We integrate social psychological and behavioral economic perspectives on trust.
• Impulsive processing influences “rational” trust decisions.
• We influence trust beliefs by activating cognitive contents.
• Subliminal construct prime directly affects concordant economic game.
• Dual process models are tested against economic one-system account.

The activation of cognitive contents plays a prominent role in social psychological research. Yet, so far this has received little attention in economics. In our research we connect a standard social psychological manipulation to activate cognitive content (a trust vs. distrust priming manipulation) to a classic paradigm from economics (a trust game). Our findings demonstrate that subliminally activating the concept of trust (vs. distrust) leads participants to judge a series of strangers as more (vs. less) trustworthy. Moreover, our research shows for the first time that such a subliminal priming manipulation shapes the subsequent sending behavior in a fictitious version of a standard economic trust game. This suggests that psychological priming techniques allow new insights into what determines beliefs in economic games.