don't stress, just trust.

trust has been suggested as one factor in variations in individual economic behaviors. i just came across this really cool study on the link between trust, social memory, and social stress. the hypothesis was that social stress decreases social memory, which in turn has impact on trading behaviors, but that trust may modulate this effect.

taiki takahashi of hokkaido university induced socially stressful situations using the trier stress test. cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, memory, and trust-related personality traits were also measured.

takahashi found that social stress hampers memory (as opposed to emotional stress, which enhances it). perhaps more interestingly, individuals with high levels of trust were correlated with reduced stress (cortisol) levels. this makes sense in some ways; more trusting individuals probably does make interactions with them less stressful.

therefore, takahashi concludes that "interpersonal trust may modulate economic behaviors via stress hormone's action on social cognition-related brain regions."

Labels: economics, neuroscience