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.