Forthcoming American Journal of Sociology Swift Neighbors and Persistent Strangers: A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Trust and Reciprocity in Social Exchange^

In this research we explore anonymous, one-shot exchanges among “neighbors” and among “strangers” in four countries. Specifically, we compare levels of trust and reciprocity in a direct-reciprocal (dyadic) exchange, with those in network generalized exchanges among experimentally manipulated groups’ members (neighbors) or random experimental participants (strangers). We demonstrate that levels of cooperation decrease as social distance increases between the participants. Furthermore, we show that two network-generalized exchanges with identical structures and incentives generate different amounts of trusting behavior solely due to manipulated social identity between actors. We also demonstrate an interaction effect with culture; individually oriented participants quickly embraced the experimental “neighbors” – trusting and reciprocating relatively equal amounts in the direct and group exchanges, but significantly less in the strangers exchange. Conversely, collectively oriented participants persisted in treating all others as “strangers” – extending more cooperation in the direct exchange, but significantly less and equal amounts in the group and strangers exchanges. Finally, our results reveal differing relationships between trusting and reciprocal behavior in these exchanges across the four countries, bringing into question the theoretical relationship between these two cooperative behaviors.