Getting off on the wrong foot: the timing of breach and the restoration of trust
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Subject
Organisational Behaviour
Publishing details
Authors / Editors
Lount R B;Zhong C;Sivanathan N;Murnighan J K
Biographies
Publication Year
2008
Abstract
Few interpersonal relationships endure without one party violating the other's expectations. Thus, the ability to build trust and to restore cooperation after a breach can be critical for the preservation of positive relationships. Using an iterated prisoner's dilemma, this article presents two experiments that investigated the effects of the timing of a trust breach—at the start of an interaction, after 5 trials, after 10 trials, or not at all. The findings indicate that getting off on the wrong foot has devastating long-term consequences. Although later breaches seemed to limit cooperation for only a short time, they still planted a seed of distrust that surfaced in the end.
Keywords
Trust; Trust repair; Trust breach; Cooperation; Primacy effect
Available on ECCH
No
