Trust is an important part of what keeps society humming. Without it, workplace dynamics would break down, relationships would break up, and paranoia, alienation and isolation would skyrocket. But how do people decide whether someone deserves to be trusted – and does their class status have anything to do with it?

INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour Nadav Klein, together with his co-authors*, carried out research to investigate just that. They examined if people tend to trust others from lower- or higher-class contexts, and how whether someone belonged to a specific class context in childhood or is currently a part of it influences this relationship.

Why it matters

Understanding how class status and trust intersect can give us a richer understanding of socioeconomic inequalities and how people from different milieus relate to each other. Plus, if social class does indeed affect whether and how people trust one another, then either growing up or currently existing within a given class background may offer certain benefits. 

For instance, if people from lower-class contexts, especially in childhood, are more likely to be trusted than those from higher-class contexts, this is a key reputational benefit that they can take advantage of. This could incentivise them to broadcast signals that communicate humble upbringings, which is something that many politicians already do.

The study

The researchers conducted 17 studies to test whether participants trusted targets from lower-class contexts; if this differed for targets’ childhood vs. current class status; and if there was a difference between trust behaviour vs. trust expectations. Trust behaviour refers to accepting vulnerability with respect to another person – for instance, letting someone housesit for you while you’re on vacation. Trust expectations refer to believing that person will reward rather than exploit your vulnerability (i.e. having faith that the person housesitting for you won't steal valuable items).

Klein and his collaborators distinguished between childhood and current social class, as these are associated with different internal experiences. For example, research has shown that if someone’s higher-class status is due to their current situation, this is linked with agreeableness and emotional stability. But if it’s rooted in their childhood and family background, it’s associated with entitlement and narcissism. 

The takeaway

The findings reveal that people consistently behave with more trust towards those whose childhoods were spent in lower-class contexts compared to higher-class contexts. They view them as trustworthy and moral, and expect them to honour that trust.

People also behaviourally trust others currently in lower-class contexts more than higher-class contexts – but they do not perceive them to be trustworthy or moral, or expect them to honour that trust. Instead, the decision to trust others in this scenario is linked to another factor: altruism. This means that individuals may view trusting people currently from lower-class backgrounds as the generous thing to do, whether or not material resources are involved.

One thing the researchers didn’t ask participants is who should benefit from others’ trust (as opposed to who does benefit). Given that people can have inaccurate, or even entirely dated, perceptions of the mental states of others from higher- and lower-class backgrounds, this could be a fruitful avenue for future research.

*Kristin Laurin, Holly R. Engstrom, Toni Schmader and Khai Qing Chua, University of British Columbia, and Stéphane Côté, University of Toronto.