High-status people tend to trust more than lower counterparts

Washington, Sept 29 (ANI): People with high-status rate others as more benevolent, which leads them to trust more, according to a new study.

In three separate experiments, researchers found that high-status people tended to trust people more in initial encounters than did people with lower status.

These findings indicate that having high status fundamentally alters our expectations of others' motives toward us, said Robert Lount, lead author of the study and assistant professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

"People have high status because other people like and admire them. The result is that high-status individuals come to expect that others are going to treat them well, which makes them more likely to trust," Lount said.

"The road from high status to increased trust is one paved with positive expectations of others' motives."

In a workplace, that means that bosses, who generally have more status than their employees, may be more trusting during initial encounters.

Of course, levels of trust may change as people work together.

"But that initial encounter is really important because it shapes future behaviour," Lount said. "If your first signal is that you don't fully trust someone, that could undermine future trust development."

Of course, bosses also have more power than employees. However, one of the experiments showed that it was status, not power, that led to the results found here.

The study has been online in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (ANI)