信任的心理和神经生理机制

Psychological and Neurophysiologic Mechanisms of Trust

信任是建立在对他人的意向或行为的积极预期基础上而敢于托付(愿意承受风险)的一种心理状态。心理学家以及组织管理学家通过对信任发展的研究提出了信任发展的二元互动模型、理性选择模型、动机归因模型和可信赖程度——合作双螺旋模型。背叛行为会对信任关系的建立与发展带来永久性的伤害。已有的关于信任的神经生理机制的研究表明:人们所表现出的信任行为与其催产素水平密切相关,而且信任与背纹状体、前脑岛以及处理奖赏信息相关的脑区——伏隔核、尾状核、腹内侧额叶/前额脑区底部和侧前扣带皮层——的活动相关联。尽管目前关于信任的研究已经取得了很大进展,但是要解开信任的心理机制及其神经生理机制之谜,还需要进一步的研究。

Trust is the willingness to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of another＇ s behavior. It is an important tie for the development and maintenance of a wide range of long-term relationships such as friendship, marriage, cooperate cooperation and international relations. Owing to its importance, the mechanisms of developing and maintaining trust have caught the eye of scientists from different disciplines such as psychologists, organizational behaviorists, sociologists, and experimental-economists and so on. During the past decades, researchers proposed the Dyadic Model, Rational Choice Model, Motivated Attributions Model, and Perceived Trustworthiness - Cooperation Spiral Model of Trust Development. All of these models shed light on the complexity of trust development from different aspect. However, each model has its own limitations, for example, the Dyadic Model outlineds the factors that influence the process of trust building, but it doesn＇t clarify how the factors or the overall effect of these factors interact in the process of trust development. The Rational Choice Model is based on the assumption that people＇ s behaviors are all rational, but recent research indicates that people＇s behaviors are not necessarily rational at all the times. Therefore, an integrated model of trust development will ensure the course of future research. Besides, psychological research on the maintenance of trust has shown that betrayal has long-term detrimental effects on trust development; once betrayed, it is almost impossible to rebuild a trust relationship as good as before. Although commitment can enhance the process of rebuilding trust, it never cures the hurts caused by betrayal. On the other hand, researchers have begun to investigate the origins of trust and trust development from biological and evolutionary perspectives. The evolutionary perspective proposes that trust is one basic aspect of human nature. It is an evolutionary developed adaptive mechanism for human survival. Thair recently, neuron scientists and experimental economists have begun to uncover the underlying physiological basis of human trust. Results have shown that oxytocin is associated with human trustworthiness and trust behavior and that trust is associated with the activation of dorsal striatum, anterior insula and brain areas that have proved to be linked with reward processing： nucleus accumbens, the caudate nucleus, ventromedial frontal/orbitofrontal cortex, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex. These researches have opened new vista for us to understand the mysteries of trust. Although tremendous progress has been made in understanding the mechanism of trust and trust development, more research work is needed to unravel the mysteries of the psychological and neurophysiolugic underlJinning of human trust. One direction of future research is how the interaction or coordination of different factors influences the process of trust development. Another direction is how trust develops across the lifespan, particularly how cognitive, emotional and social development direction the development of trust among individuals. Besides, future research can shed light on disentangling the mysteries of trust through longitudinal designs, experiments conducted in real-life settings, cross-cultural comparison, and the advancement of social-cognitive-neuroscience.