The impact of social identity on trust in China: Experimental evidence from cross-group comparisons

Social identity tends to bias decision making in favour of in-group members with whom one shares a common social membership. This article investigates the trust behaviour of mainland Chinese when interacting with nonmainlanders in a two-party decision-making situation. Our experimental results reveal that, relative to their Hong Kong brethren who tend to be insensitive to their potential partner's background of origin, the decisions of mainland Chinese are significantly impacted by sharing a common background. This suggests mistrust may limit the effectiveness of China's policy of promoting international cooperation.