Interpersonal trust, or the willingness to be vulnerable to another person based on the belief that she will act benevolently, is an important concept in personal relationships and also in the workplace. Many organizational initiatives such as negotiations and teamwork benefit from trusting behaviours for effective execution. Unfortunately, violations or breeches of trust often occur in relationships with co‐workers; when an individual acts in a harmful or self‐serving way, co‐workers may feel that their self‐integrity has been threatened. How can this trust be repaired? According to self‐affirmation theory, individuals are motivated to restore their sense of self‐worth in the face of a violation. A person can maintain a perception of themselves as moral and adequate by affirming their self‐worth in a domain unrelated to that of the trust violation. In this laboratory experiment, three self‐affirmation conditions focus on friends/family as the domain outside of the workplace that provides self‐affirmation. Participants imagine being part of a Queen’s research laboratory highlighting a close relationship to a teammate, who later violates the participant’s trust. At that point, either the participant is not affirmed, or they are reminded directly or indirectly of their family/friends. Afterwards, questionnaires assess participants’ trusting attitudes and openness to criticism, comparing responses between conditions. This research may help to establish different ways to buffer loss of productivity or effectiveness in the workplace due to loss of trust brought about by events such as downsizing or poor performance evaluations. It also identifies factors that help manage trust violations and restore trust.
