Go Your Own Way? Social Perception, Migration and Trust

This study examines the relationship between trust, social capital, and migration decisions through theoretical and experimental analyses of how social perception influences behaviour in trust games. Previous studies highlight that smaller societies typically develop higher levels of cooperation and trust due to closer social bonds and informal mechanisms of social control. Also, related research on emigration in some European countries stress the negative impact of such phenomenon both on human (brain drain hypothesis) and on social capital. In this paper, we take a different perspective. In fact, our theoretical model suggests that the greater trust observed among non-migrants is not merely a consequence of their continued presence in their community of origin, but may be a pre-existing characteristic that influenced their decision to stay. We test our theoretical model using field experimental data, collected in small towns in Southern Italy in 2023. The results of the empirical investigation demonstrate that individuals who chose to stay exhibit higher levels of trust compared to those who left their community of origin. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that migration serves as a selective filter for trust, thereby altering the distribution of social capital within the remaining population.