The Role of Trust in Knowledge Acquisition: Results from Field Experiments in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Ecuadorian farmers do not play the investment game (Berg, Dickhaut and McCabe 1995) the same with community farmers as they do with agricultural technicians. Women exhibit a preference for trust in agricultural technicians (vertical trust). Using experimental and survey data from 191 farmers we examine factors associated with 1) farmer trust in community members, 2) farmer trust in agricultural technicians, and 3) differences between levels of trust in agricultural technicians and community farmers. Then we explore how our measures of trust correlate with pesticide knowledge. Farmers who place more trust in community farmers score lower on our pesticide knowledge exam. We find that farmers who exhibit a preference for trusting agricultural technicians score higher on our pesticide knowledge exam.