Are Survey measures of Trust Correlated with Experimental Trust? Empirical Evidence from Cameroon

Abstract

We analyze the correlation between survey-based measures of trust and behavior in the Trust Game in two villages in Cameroon. Some participants play the Trust Game with people from their own village, and others with people from a neighboring village. The survey that the participants complete includes questions about trust and social distance that reflect the experimental treatment. Some measures of survey-based trust are correlated with experimental trust, but the level of correlation is not uniform.