Trust and Reciprocity Drive Social Common Goods Contribution Norms

In the emergent field of tax psychology, the focus on regulating tax evasion recently
shifted towards searching for situational cues that elicit common goals compliance. Trust
and reciprocity are argued to steer a socially-favorable environment that supports social tax
ethics norms. Experiments, in which 256 participants played an economic trust game
followed by a common goods game, found evidence for trust and reciprocity leading to
individuals contributing to common goals. The more trust and reciprocity was practiced
and experienced, the more common goals were supported – leveraging trust and
reciprocity as interesting tax compliance antecedents. The results have widespread
implications for governmental-citizen relations. Policy makers and public servants are
advised to establish a service-oriented customer atmosphere with citizens breeding trust
and reciprocity in order to reach common societal goals.