No Matter of Trust: Retrieval of Observationally Acquired Stimulus-response Bindings Occurs in Interactions With Both Trustworthy and Untrustworthy Partners

Recent findings show that simply observing how another person responds to a stimulus is sufficient to create stimulus-response (SR) episodes, which can later be retrieved from memory to guide one’s own actions. However, this only occurs if the observed person is socially relevant for the observer. This social relevance can result from task demands (e.g., cooperation or competition) or the relationship between the interacting people. An essential component of successful social relationships, which should therefore also increase the social relevance of another person, is trust. In two online experiments we investigated whether trusting versus distrusting an interaction partner modulates observationally acquired SR binding and retrieval (oSRBR) effects. Trust was manipulated by a variation of the Investment Game. Interaction partners behaved either trustworthily or untrustworthily by keeping or violating a previous promise. After that, participants performed an online interactive color classification task to assess oSRBR effects. Both experiments yielded successful manipulation checks. Significant oSRBR effects emerged, but these were not modulated by trust. We discuss potential reasons underlying these findings, particularly whether and how distrust may also have facilitated the occurrence of oSRBR effects.