City Research Online

Abstract

The propensity to trust is thought to change across the lifespan and has been hypothesized to differ between sexes. However, the existing literature is inconclusive regarding age- and sex-related associations with trust toward others. We sought to specifically investigate age and sex differences in initial trust toward unknown others and in trust in repeated interactions with human and computer partners who either behaved trustworthy or untrustworthy. In the current study, cross-sectional data of six projects were pooled and included 304 participants aged 13–58 years (51% female). Initial trust toward a human partner showed a quadratic association with age. No age-related effect was observed for computer partners. During repeated interactions, older age was associated with more pronounced reductions in trust toward untrustworthy partners. No age effect was found for trust toward a trustworthy partner. Sex was unrelated to levels of trust in all analyses. Limitations of the study are the cross-sectional nature of the data, highlighting the need for longitudinal research to better understand developmental changes in trust.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Publisher Keywords:	initial trust, adaptation of trust, age-related associations, sex-related differences, life-span
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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