Social versus nonsocial visual cues of trustworthiness uniquely influence trust related behavior and memory

Trust-related impressions and behavior are influenced by behavioral and non-behavioral (e.g., visual) cues. Similarly, nonsocial cues of trustworthiness (e.g., color cues like red or green, symbols such as warning signs or checkmarks) can influence behaviors associated with trust and distrust in memory and choice tasks. It is unclear, however, whether such social and nonsocial visual cues of trustworthiness have similar effects on behavior over iterative experiences and on post-task associative memory. To address these gaps, the Multi-Round Trust Game was used to determine effects of visual cues of trustworthiness on trust-related decision-making in social versus nonsocial economic game contexts. "Trustees" were represented by visual cues of trustworthiness (i.e., trustworthy and untrustworthy-looking faces, respectively). Social and nonsocial visual cues with comparable perceived trustworthiness yielded similar biasing effects on initial investments and investments over repeated interactions. However, social relative to nonsocial cues differentially influenced investment behavior with relatively more subtle visual cue differences (e.g., nonemotional facial characteristics versus positive/negative scenes). Additionally, social and nonsocial post-game memory was generally more distinctive, particularly for trustees who had shown untrustworthy behavior during the game. Extending Attribution and Betrayal Aversion theories, these findings suggest that while social and nonsocial visual cues can have similar effects on trust-related cognition and behavior, social relative to nonsocial cues affect behavior via more subtle visual differences, and their influence on post-interaction memory exceeds effects on trust-related behavior. These results highlight the privileged status of social information in dual-process models and support the critical role of intuitive evaluability in shaping behavior and memory across diverse trust-relevant contexts.