People are more likely to trust those who grew up in financial difficulties than those who grew up in wealthy families.
As reported by Yeniavaz.com, this was noted in a study published by the American Psychological Association.
The study, which involved over 1,900 participants, analyzed the influence of both childhood and current social status on perceptions of trust.
As part of the study, participants were presented with fictitious profiles purportedly belonging to real people. Some of these people were noted to have grown up in a poor family, attended a public school, and worked part-time. Another group had higher indicators of social status, such as private education and international travel.
During the experiment, participants were initially given 10 tickets and were given the option to transfer these tickets to any other player they wished. Participants were told that if they transferred tickets to another player, the number of tickets would triple; for example, if 10 tickets were transferred, the other player would have 30 tickets. The ticket recipient could return as many tickets as they wanted or none at all. During this process, the researchers measured participants' trust levels by analyzing the number of tickets they transferred. They also asked participants how many tickets they thought the other person would return if they gave them all the tickets, which measured their expectations or how trustworthy they perceived the other person to be.
The results showed that people were more likely to trust people from poor families and considered them more honest.