The Structuring of Trust Relations in Groups and the Transition of within-group Order

Abstract

     Three aspects must be concerned when we deal with structuring of groups. One is the kind of relations (e.g., friendship, trust); another is the form of structure (e.g., symmetry, transitivity) and their measures; and the last is the discrepancy between the values of the measures from the values in random states. In this article, we deal with trust relation inside the groups, and investigate their density, symmetry, and transitivity. Then, we compare structural variables with variables from an anonymous one-shot prisoner's dilemma game. One of our findings shows that as the transitivity of trust relation in groups becomes higher, the subjects' cooperation ratio also becomes higher. However, higher transitivity does not help the subjects improve the accuracy of their predictions about the other subjects' behaviors (either to cooperate or defect). This suggests that people rely on the structure of the group but not on each person's trustworthiness.