Impact of Jin-Shang teachings on Chinese people's trust

摘要

Three studies are reported that explore the impact of Jin-Shang teachings (a specialized Confucius teaching of trust on business practices) on mainland Chinese people's trust. In Study 1, we primed Confucius and Jin-Shang teachings on trust, and compared their effects on trusting tendency to a control prime. We found that these teachings made mainland Chinese participants score higher on three different trusting scales. In Study 2, we found that the Jin-Shang prime made mainland Chinese participants invest more money in a trust game than those in the control prime. In Study 3, we compared the Jin-Shang prime to Protestant teachings and contemporary writings on reciprocity, and found that only the Jin-Shang prime induced a significantly higher trusting tendency from Chinese participants than the control condition.