Observing others' risky choices: Moderation of trust by culture and decision speed

In real social interactions, people often need to make trust judgments based on limited information and cues from others' behaviors. Decision speed, as a common but highly ambiguous behavioral signal, may elicit different psychological interpretations. Furthermore, cultural background may influence how individuals interpret these behavior cues. This study explores how observers form trust judgments based on others' risk-taking behavior (risk preference and decision-making speed) and examines whether culture moderates this process. This study examined risk-taking behavior by manipulating decision speed (fast vs. slow) and risk preference (safe vs. risky), collecting data from a total of 803 participants (Western n = 402; non-western n = 401). After watching a decision-making video, participants decided how much to transfer to the decision maker in a trust game (as a measure of trust). The results indicate that trust significantly decreases as the target decision-maker's behavior shifts from safe to risky; non-western participants exhibited higher overall levels of trust. However, culture did not significantly moderate the effect of risk-taking behavior on trust, indicating that different cultures present a consistent pattern when interpreting risky behavior. This study demonstrates that risk-taking behavior, as a social signal, exhibits cross-cultural consistency, while culture primarily influences baseline levels of trust rather than the mechanisms underlying trust formation.