Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions

Trust is the glue of society. While the trust we place in close others is crucial for our wellbeing, trust in strangers is important to fulfill needs that families and friends cannot provide. Adolescence is an important phase for the development of trust in strangers, because the social world of ado...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lydia Krabbendam, Hester Sijtsma, Eveline A. Crone, Mariët van Buuren
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-10-01
Series:Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929324000872
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850261689804521472
author Lydia Krabbendam
Hester Sijtsma
Eveline A. Crone
Mariët van Buuren
author_facet Lydia Krabbendam
Hester Sijtsma
Eveline A. Crone
Mariët van Buuren
author_sort Lydia Krabbendam
collection DOAJ
description Trust is the glue of society. While the trust we place in close others is crucial for our wellbeing, trust in strangers is important to fulfill needs that families and friends cannot provide. Adolescence is an important phase for the development of trust in strangers, because the social world of adolescents expands tremendously. We provide an overview of the development of trust in adolescence by reviewing studies that used the trust game, an experimental paradigm to measure trust between dyads during monetary exchange. We start from the notion that trust is a form of social reinforcement learning in which prior beliefs about the trustworthiness of others are continuously updated by new information. Within this framework, development in adolescence is characterized by increasing uncertainty of prior beliefs, a greater tolerance of uncertainty, and a greater tendency to seek and use new information. Accordingly, there is evidence for an increase in initial trust and better adaptation of trust during repeated interactions. Childhood psychological and social-economic adversity may impact this development negatively. To further our understanding of these individual differences, we suggest ways in which the trust game can be enriched to capture trust dilemmas that are relevant to youth with diverse backgrounds.
format Article
id doaj-art-1b93b5f58bfa4e748e3fd9020b166db0
institution OA Journals
issn 1878-9293
language English
publishDate 2024-10-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
spelling doaj-art-1b93b5f58bfa4e748e3fd9020b166db02025-08-20T01:55:21ZengElsevierDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience1878-92932024-10-016910142610.1016/j.dcn.2024.101426Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directionsLydia Krabbendam0Hester Sijtsma1Eveline A. Crone2Mariët van Buuren3Department of Clinical, Neuro, and Developmental Psychology, Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Correspondence to: Department of Clinical, Neuro, and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 7, Amsterdam 1081 BT, the NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical, Neuro, and Developmental Psychology, Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the NetherlandsErasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical, Neuro, and Developmental Psychology, Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the NetherlandsTrust is the glue of society. While the trust we place in close others is crucial for our wellbeing, trust in strangers is important to fulfill needs that families and friends cannot provide. Adolescence is an important phase for the development of trust in strangers, because the social world of adolescents expands tremendously. We provide an overview of the development of trust in adolescence by reviewing studies that used the trust game, an experimental paradigm to measure trust between dyads during monetary exchange. We start from the notion that trust is a form of social reinforcement learning in which prior beliefs about the trustworthiness of others are continuously updated by new information. Within this framework, development in adolescence is characterized by increasing uncertainty of prior beliefs, a greater tolerance of uncertainty, and a greater tendency to seek and use new information. Accordingly, there is evidence for an increase in initial trust and better adaptation of trust during repeated interactions. Childhood psychological and social-economic adversity may impact this development negatively. To further our understanding of these individual differences, we suggest ways in which the trust game can be enriched to capture trust dilemmas that are relevant to youth with diverse backgrounds.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929324000872TrustSocial reinforcement learningAdolescence
spellingShingle Lydia Krabbendam
Hester Sijtsma
Eveline A. Crone
Mariët van Buuren
Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Trust
Social reinforcement learning
Adolescence
title Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
title_full Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
title_fullStr Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
title_full_unstemmed Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
title_short Trust in adolescence: Development, mechanisms and future directions
title_sort trust in adolescence development mechanisms and future directions
topic Trust
Social reinforcement learning
Adolescence
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929324000872
work_keys_str_mv AT lydiakrabbendam trustinadolescencedevelopmentmechanismsandfuturedirections
AT hestersijtsma trustinadolescencedevelopmentmechanismsandfuturedirections
AT evelineacrone trustinadolescencedevelopmentmechanismsandfuturedirections
AT marietvanbuuren trustinadolescencedevelopmentmechanismsandfuturedirections