The impact of relational demographics on perceived managerial trustworthiness: similarity or norms?

Perceived trustworthiness is a critical antecedent of interpersonal trust, yet researchers have a limited understanding of how such perceptions are generated. The authors used 2 competing perspectives within the relational demography literature--similarity-attraction and relational norms--to empirically examine the effect of demographic differences. Whereas the similarity-attraction account suggests that subordinates will perceive their managers as more trustworthy when managers and staff are similar in demographic attributes, the relational norms account proposes that subordinates will perceive their managers as more trustworthy when their demographic differences follow normative expectations. Data collected from a field study of 178 manager-subordinate dyads in Hong Kong and Macau support the relational norms account in terms of education and organizational rank. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the study.