To trust, or not to trust: Cognitive reflection in trust games

•We report the results of two studies on trust and cognitive abilities.•CRT predicts trusting but not trustworthy behavior.•Distributional social preferences predict trustworthy but not trusting behavior.

We present results from two studies that show a positive relation between cognitive reflection and trusting behavior, but no significant relation with trustworthy behavior. Our finding holds regardless of individual distributional social preferences and risk aversion. Our results add to a growing body of literature that illustrates the role of cognitive ability in helping explain outcomes in economic experiments.