The Effect of Religious Identity on Trust: An Experimental Study Using the Trust Game

This project investigates whether perceived religious identity influences interpersonal trust in economic decision-making. Using an experimental Trust Game paradigm (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995), participants in the role of investors decide how much money to transfer to another player (the trustee). The trustee’s social identity is manipulated through visual cues, presenting the trustee as either Christian (wearing a cross necklace) or non-Christian (wearing a neutral necklace), and as either male or female. Conducted in the highly secular context of the Czech Republic, the study aims to contribute to research on trust, social identity, and religion by examining how simple identity signals may shape cooperative behaviour and expectations of reciprocity.