Are All Trust Violations the Same? A Dynamical Examination of Culture, Trust Dissolution, and Trust Recovery

As our global interdependence grows, understanding how culture affects trust and how we can manage trust in intercultural relations is imperative. However, relatively few studies have focused on the relationship between trust and culture, and little of this work examined multiple trust phases sequentially to reveal the dynamics of trust over time. This research examined how the cultural differences of self-construal (individualistic vs. collectivistic) moderates the relationship between trust violation magnitude and trust change in two post-violation phases: trust dissolution and trust recovery. We adopted an economic game methodology, the Investment Game, which allows repeated measures to examine trust dynamics. The results revealed a joint effect of selfconstrual and trust violation magnitude on the dynamic of trust changes. Implications for intercultural negotiation will be discussed.