Elicited vs. voluntary promises

•We study how promise elicitation by trustors affects trust and trustworthiness.•A majority of trustors elicit a promise when given the opportunity to do so.•Promise making rate and beliefs are higher when trustors elicit a promise.•Trustworthiness rate is not higher when trustors elicit a promise than with one-way communication.•Promise keeping rates for elicited and voluntary promises are not different.

We set up an experiment with pre-play communication to study the impact of promise elicitation by trustors from trustees on trust and trustworthiness. When given the opportunity a majority of trustors solicits a promise from the trustee. This drives up the promise making rate by trustees to almost 100%. We find that elicited promises are more likely to be trusted than volunteered promises, but trustees who make an elicited promise are not more likely to be trustworthy than trustees who make a voluntary promise.