Yamagishi, Toshio and Midori Yamagishi. 1994. Trust and Commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion 18: 129-166.
A distinction is
proposed between trust as a cognitive bias in the evaluation of incomplete
information about the (potential) interaction partner and assurance as a
perception of the incentive structure that leads the interaction partner to act
cooperatively. It is hypothesized that trust in this sense helps people to move
out of mutually committed relations where the partner's cooperation is assured.
Although commitment formation is a rather standard solution to the problems
caused by social uncertainty, commitment becomes a liability rather than an
asset as opportunity costs increase. Facing increasing opportunity costs, trust
provides a springboard in the attempt to break psychological inertia that has
been mobilized to maintain committed relations. In conjunction with an
assumption that networks of mutually committed relations play a more prominent
role in Japanese society than in American society, this hypothesis has been
applied to predict a set of cross-national
differences between the United States and Japan in the levels of trust and
related factors. The results of a cross-national questionnaire survey (with
1,136 Japanese and 501 American respondents) support most of the predictions,
and
indicate that, in comparison to Japanese respondents, American respondents are
more trusting of other people in general, consider reputation more important,
and consider themselves more honest and fair. In contrast, Japanese respondents
see more utility in dealing with others through personal relations.
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