Rationality and Reciprocity in Trust: Key Findings | Northwestern University

The Trust Project at Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management

There was little research into trust before 1995, when three scholars published a paper that identified integrity, competence, and benevolence as the critical elements of the concept. Since then, interest in trust has flourished among scholars. For example, one sociologist studied a group of mushroom hunters in Minnesota. He found that, despite the potential dangers, new members of the group would eat mushrooms they didn't recognize offered by people they barely knew, in the hope that doing so would ingratiate them with the group. Research shows that there is a solid basis for that hope: showing trust creates a relationship of reciprocity.