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Abstract
Trust plays an important role in social interaction. While previous studies show the positive correlation between perceived trustworthiness, trust, and trusting behaviors, numerous theories and empirical studies provide strong evidence against the bond between perceived trustworthiness and trust, as well as the bond between trust and trusting behaviors. Moreover, less attention has been put in investigating the situations where people lack definitive information on others’ trustworthiness, especially in the context of negotiation. To unravel the insistency in the relationship between perceived trustworthiness, trust, and trusting behaviors, as well as to elucidate trust in uncertainty, we experimentally manipulated participants’ perception on the other negotiation party, and examined the following trust and trusting behaviors. The results suggest that people are not willing to mentally trust the other untrustworthy negotiation party, but nevertheless display the same trusting behaviors as they are negotiating with trustworthy people. Besides, in situations of uncertainty, the extent to which people perceive others as trustworthy and trust others falls between the circumstances where others are certainly trustworthy and certainly untrustworthy. However, no difference is detected in their trusting behaviors. Together, our work provides evidence against the bond between trust and trusting behaviors specifically in a negotiation context, and sheds light on the role of uncertainty in trust.