Earning trust in intergroup contexts: The interplay of perceived warmth and competence

Previous research on intergroup trust has focused predominantly on trustors' dispositional profiles while overlooking the pivotal role of perceptions of the target outgroup and their intricate interactions. Building on the "Big-Two" model of social perception, four studies (N = 802) examined the proposition that intergroup trust is a joint function of the target outgroup's perceived warmth and competence. Studies 1 and 2 investigated how American and Chinese people's perceptions of each other regarding warmth and competence impact their mutual trust, respectively. Study 3 manipulated social perceptions of a virtual group by presenting warmth- and competence-related cues and captured the resulting intergroup trust behavior. Study 4 examined intergroup trust toward four natural groups generally perceived to have different levels of warmth and competence in both cooperative and competitive contexts. Consistent with our theoretical predictions, perceived warmth promoted intergroup trust only when the target outgroup was perceived as competent. Alternatively, the sign of perceived competence's role in predicting intergroup trust depended primarily on perceived warmth. These findings underscore the indispensability of both warmth and competence in shaping intergroup trust and have implications for international conflict resolution and peacekeeping.