Go your own way?

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. Small societies are more likely to develop higher levels of cooperation and trust due to closer social bonds and informal mechanisms of social control. Also, related researches 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. We conducted a field experiment in small towns of Southern Italy (2023), recruiting both migrants and non-migrants. Our evidence demonstrates that individuals who chose to stay exhibit higher levels of trust compared to those who left their community of origin. These results prompt the development of a theoretical model in which migration operates as a social perception filter affecting trust. In this framework, the greater trust observed among non-migrants is interpreted not simply as a consequence of staying, but as a pre-existing trait that may have influenced their decision not to leave. The main contribution of this study is to build a psychological game that formalizes how social perception mechanisms interact with migration decisions.