OVERCOMING MISTRUST

Abstract

Trust is often held to promote cooperation, but mistrust can hinder it. This article looks at how trust can be built through strategic interaction. I formalize the common intuition that trust needs to be built through small initial cooperative gestures. These gestures are shown to overcome mistrust and facilitate cooperation in an n-person social dilemma game. The model lends support to the idea that trust can be a product of rational strategic interaction. I then extend the result in a related model that shows how trust can arise between nonaltruistic actors in iterated settings.