Cooperating with others is an important part of getting along in society, especially for adolescents who are still developing social skills like trust and reciprocity.
A study published in Frontiers in Psychology looked at how trust is formed, broken, and influenced by personality traits in 248 teenagers, with an average age of 15. The participants were paired with classmates they didn’t know and played the Trust Game.
The study revealed that trust was built during the early rounds of the game but dropped as players approached the last round, where the risk of betrayal became more likely. Adolescents were more likely to trust their partner if they received a fair return on their investment. However, if their partner gave back less than expected, trust quickly broke down.
Moreover, the study found that impulsive teens and those with good social skills were less likely to cooperate over time. Impulsive teens struggled to keep trust because they focused on quick rewards instead of long-term benefits.
These findings show that trust, fairness, and personality affect how teens work together. Social skills help build relationships but can cause problems if one person doesn’t give back.
Understanding the Research
This study included 257 students from Grades 9 to 11, drawn from 11 classrooms in five schools. The schools were located in a mix of urban and rural regions. After removing 9 students who couldn’t be paired with a peer due to an odd number of participants, the final sample consisted of 248 students.
Students filled out four surveys to understand their personality and social behavior. These included an impulsiveness test, a social skills survey, and a rejection sensitivity survey.
During the Trust Game, participants played 10 rounds with a random classmate. One person was the investor, who started with 20 money units (MU) each round and decided how much to give to the other person, called the trustee. The amount given to the trustee was tripled, and then the trustee decided how much to return to the investor.
In each round, the goal was for both players to make as much money as possible. The game was designed so that players didn't know who their partner was, and they kept the same partner throughout the game. At the end, no one could figure out who their partner was.
These were the results:
- Participants started trusting each other more at the beginning of the game, but trust decreased halfway through as they started to expect the other player might “cheat” or not return as much.
- When players returned more money, trust grew, but if they gave less back, trust decreased.
- Players who acted impulsively (making quick decisions without thinking) didn’t build as strong of a relationship. If the player did not return enough money or acted too quickly, the other person would stop trusting them.
- Players with better social skills didn’t always get better returns. In fact, people with strong social skills sometimes gave too much and got less in return. This could mean that being too nice or trusting could lead to being taken advantage of.
Practical Strategies for Parents and Caregivers
Helping teens build healthy relationships and trust can be tricky, especially when it comes to working together with others. You might wonder how to guide your child through situations where trust, fairness, and giving back are important.
Here are a few tips:
Let them know the importance of mutual giving
Explain to your child or teen that healthy relationships are built when both people support each other. At the same time, remind them that it’s okay to set boundaries if they feel they’re giving too much without receiving the same effort in return.
They need to understand that balanced relationships (where both sides contribute equally) are the ones that truly thrive.
Support the development of social skills
Help them develop social skills through regular conversations about empathy — understanding and caring about how others feel. Teach them the value of active listening, which means paying full attention to what someone is saying without interrupting and responding thoughtfully. Discuss the importance of cooperation and seeing things from another person’s perspective, as this helps them connect and relate better to others.
Teach how to handle betrayal or disappointment
Since trust can sometimes be broken, they need to learn how to cope with disappointment. Guide them on how to process feelings of betrayal and how to decide whether to forgive or distance themselves from someone who has broken their trust.
Talk about what forgiveness means — that it’s about letting go of resentment to find peace, and not necessarily about forgetting or excusing the behavior.
The authors suggest doing more trials to understand how individual differences affect cooperation and using more ambiguous situations to see how personality traits influence behavior.
Want to support your teen’s social development? Check out our Character Education Posters and Social Skills Worksheets to help them build healthy relationships.
