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Trust, Reciprocity, and Guanxi in China: An Experimental Investigation

Part of: Guanxi Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Fei Song ,
C. Bram Cadsby  and
Yunyun Bi
Fei Song
Affiliation:
Ryerson University, Canada
C. Bram Cadsby
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Canada
Yunyun Bi
Affiliation:
Taiping Asset Management, China
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Abstract

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We examine the influence of social distance on levels of trust and reciprocity in China. Social distance, reflected in the indigenous concept of guanxi, is of central importance to Chinese culture. In Study 1, some participants participated in two financially salient trust games to measure behaviour, one with an anonymous classmate and the other with an anonymous, demographically identical non-classmate. Other participants, drawn from the same population, completed hypothetical surveys to gauge both hypothetical behaviour and expectations of others. Social distance effects on actual and hypothetical behaviour were statistically consistent. The results together corroborated the hypothesized negative relationship between trust and social distance. However, reciprocity was not responsive to social distance. Study 2 found that affect-based trust, but not cognition-based trust, played a mediating role in the relationship between social distance and interpersonal trust in a hypothetical scenario. We conclude that close guanxi ties in China engender affect-based trust, which is extended to shouren classmates. This is true despite the fact that no more cognition-based trust is placed nor reciprocity received or expected from classmates compared to demographically identical shengren non-classmates.

Keywords

affect-based trustChinaguanxireciprocitytrust基于情感的信任中国关系互惠信任
Type
Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 397 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2012

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