An experimental analysis of the process to which trust is formed and collapses with the changes of decision-making pattern.

1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 06801016
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 教育・社会系心理学
• Research Institution: Shimane University
• Principal Investigator: ISHII Tooru Shimane University Faculty of Law and Literature, Associate Professor, 法文学部, 助教授 (40193255)
• Project Period (FY): 1994 – 1996
• Keywords: ishi-kettei / decision-making / shinrai / trust / maze / computer graphics / emergency

Research Abstract

In our ordinary lives, we cooperate one another or sometimes compete face to face with each other on one hand. But we are also living by matching ourselves to the flow of surrounding peple with an assertion or two of ourselves from time to time. The former life could be called a life on "face to face TRUST", trust that lies between the ones sitting face to face, and the latter could be called a life on "side by side TRUST", trust that lies among the ones sitting side by side.
This research originates in Garfinkel (1963). In our research we searched how side by side TRUST is born again once it was destroyed and set free.
For our experimental observation, we used a virtual situational reality pre-set in PC.
We examined the process of side by side TRUST formation and its collapse, collecting data from the changes in the decision making pattern that the subjects have shown while escaping from the virtual maze, especially in responding to "Mate", the virtual adviser.
We carried experiments in 1 994 through '96. Basic analyzes were done alog with the collection and in 1996 overall analyzes were done.
Subjects for this experiments are 132 persons (49 persons in the year 1994,45 in '95, and 38 in '96).
After test practices on the program, subjects wander in the maze 5 times. On the 4th and 5th trial, "Fires" are generated in their course of escape. They must avoid the fire before reaching the safe exit. Many advices are given on many spots by the virtual "Mate". And it is totally up to them to make a decision whether or not to follow the advices.
The date of 98 subjects (28 males and 70 females) who failed the escape on their 4th trial with 3 fires were used for the overall analyzes.
ANOVA results show : In the 5th escape trial subjects showed the same advice-accept-reject pattern that they had in the previous 4th trial. This tendency was especially apparent when they passed the second quarter in the 5th trial.
In this research, we have proposed two viewpoints, reliance on the reliance on the already-known and the law of psychological inertia. And from those viewpoints we have examined the phenomenon that subjects repeated the same accept/reject pattern of advice that led them to failure in escape in the previous trial.