Money Priming and Trust among Children: Evidence of a Field Experiment

In addition to typical functions of money such as a medium of exchange, a means of evaluation, and storing the value of goods and services, it also has a symbolic character. Money due to its symbolic character can be used as a social goal in regulating interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. On the one hand, priming is one of the most important ways to highlight the symbolic aspect of money. On the other hand, trust is one of the essential aspects of human relations. We conduct a trust game experiment on 511 fourth-grade girl students from the public schools in Mashhad. The results showed that children primed with money in the experimental group, on average, trust more than the control group.