People distrust those who are mean with money, according to an Oxford University study.

For the study, the researchers conducted two experiments involving 265 Oxford University students.

In the first experiment, participants played the Dictator Game in pairs. Researchers gave $14 to one of the pairs and asked them to give either $2 or make a generous donation of $6 to their partners.

In the second experiment, participants played the Trust Game in pairs but with different partners. Here the partners were either asked to give the money to their partner or keep it with them. The amount will be doubled if they decided to donate. Before the game proceeded, the donors were informed about their partner's actions in the first game - whether they were kind or selfish.

The researchers found that 65 percent of participants in the second experiment sent money to those who displayed chartable behaviour in the first game. Only 29 percent of players gave away money to those who were greedy or failed to confess their behaviour in the earlier Dictator Game. About 60 percent of players who had been ungenerous in the first game lied about their meanness in the second game saying that they had been charitable.

The researchers explained the rules of the Trust Game to some of the participants before they played the Dictator Game. As a result, the researchers could determine whether the players choose to be big-hearted in the first game.

"When acts of generosity occur naturally with no concern for how they are perceived by others, they can be effective signals of trustworthiness. Charity balls are places where people can openly display their generosity, but in this case, because people know they are going to be observed, this might be a strategic gesture and less telling of their true character. We regard acts of genuine generosity as those produced spontaneously and these are widely seen as a reliable indicator of trustworthiness even when they are small gestures," Researcher Dr Wojtek Przepiorka, from the Department of Sociology said in a statement.

The finding is published in the journal PLOS One.