How Trust and Distrust Shape Perception and Memory

Trust is a key ingredient in decision making, as it allows us to rely on the information we receive. Although trust is usually viewed as a positive element of decision making, we suggest that its effects on memory are costly rather than beneficial. Across nine studies using three different manipulations of trust and distrust and three different memory paradigms, we find that trust reduces memory performance as compared with distrust. In Study 1, trust leads to higher acceptance rates of misinformation. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that participants in a distrust and a control condition perform better at a memory recognition task than participants in a trust condition. Studies 3a and 3b show that trust also reduces free recall of memory content. Examining the underlying mechanism, we find that reduced memory performance in a state of trust is caused by an increased perception of similarities between items that are to be memorized. Following a causal chain design, Study 4 shows that trust increases the sensitivity to similarities as compared with distrust and a control condition, and Study 5 shows that a processing focus on similarities reduces memory accuracy. Studies 6 and 7 create circumstances that either leave the proposed mediator free to vary or interrupt it via the induction of a similarity-focus (Study 6) or a difference-focus (Study 7). The disadvantage of trust is only present if the mediating processing focus can freely operate. Overall, these studies show that trust impairs memory performance due to an increased perception of similarities between memory content.