Examining group-based trust with the investment game

Group-based trust was investigated by considering the relationship between 2 groups with differing socioeconomic status. High-status (Northern Italians) and low-status (Southern Italians) group members played a modified version of the investment game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995), paired with an ingroup or an outgroup member. Results showed that for low-status group members, trust was higher in the outgroup than ingroup condition, while high-status group members did not prefer the ingroup over the outgroup. These findings highlight the importance of studying the effects of status in research on group-based trust.