What Dropping 17,000 Wallets Around The Globe Can Teach Us About Honesty

[Wingnut]

So picture this: You're a receptionist at, say, a hotel. Someone walks in and says they found a lost wallet but they're in a hurry. They hand it to you. What would you do?

And would that answer be different if it was empty or full of cash?

Those are questions researchers have been exploring; Thursday, they published their findings in the journal Science.

The experiment started small, with a research assistant in Finland turning in a few wallets with different amounts of money. He would walk up to the counter of a big public place, like a bank or a post office.

"Acting as a tourist, he mentioned that he found the wallet outside around the corner, and then he asked the employees to take care of it," says Alain Cohn from the University of Michigan, the study's lead author.

The researchers assumed that putting money in the wallet would make people less likely to return it, because the payoff would be bigger. A poll of 279 "top-performing academic economists" agreed.

But researchers saw the opposite.


"People were more likely to return a wallet when it contained a higher amount of money," Cohn says. "At first we almost couldn't believe it and told him to triple the amount of money in the wallet. But yet again we found the same puzzling finding."

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734141432/what-dropping-17-000-wallets-around-the-globe-can-teach-us-about-honesty

[dfwgator]

I heard that in Japan you could drop your wallet on the sidewalk, come back a day later, and the wallet would still be there with all the money in it.

[EdJames]

I heard that in Japan you could drop your wallet on the sidewalk, come back a day later, and the wallet would still be there with all the money in it.

Was in Japan in 1998, combined business trip and Nagano Winter Olympics.

Long story short: we missed our return bullet train trip back to Toyko one evening.  Had to scramble to find a local "coast line" train back.  One of our party left his wallet on the counter at the ticket office.  He realized it before the train pulled out of the station and we are trying to communicate to the Japanese conductor what happened and that he needed to go back.  Japanese conductor was like a stone wall and wouldn't open the door.  (Almost none of them speak anything other than Japanese!)

All of a sudden a heavy weight Japanese guy all out of breath from running down from the ticket office is banging on the door showing us our friend's wallet.

Sure enough, as we pulled away the wallet was full of all the credit cards, cash, and travel checks that he had in it.  (Guy refused to take any of the paper yen we were trying to give him.)

[Sanguine]

The rates at which people tried to return the wallets varied a lot by country, even though the presence of money in the wallet almost always increased the chances. In Denmark, for example, researchers saw more than 80% of wallets with money reported. Peru saw a little over 10%.

The researchers think wealth could be a factor, but there's a lot more research needed to explain the differences. "Now the problem is that we don't really know whether wealth affects honesty or it's the other way around" — whether honesty contributes to a country's relative wealth, says Cohn.

Countries with higher rates of primary education were also more likely to see high rates of lost wallets being reported.

"What this suggests is that what you learn in school is not just math and reading but also social skills, or just more generally how you treat each other," Cohn adds.

Or, it might be that some cultures teach different values?

[Wingnut]

Or, it might be that some cultures teach different values?

Without mentioning them by name that fact was aludded to.

[Sighlass]

Words of Affirmation.... as Christians know it (One of the 5 love languages including mine)....

Knowing you would be told "thank you" and that what you did was appreciated is a big factor. The more money the more likely you will told how honest you are. Perhaps some of us know a mod here that works hard in a category on this forum, perhaps a thank you for their hard work fills their "love tank".... a small price to pay but it honestly makes their day.

It also plays in the "Acts of Service" category. Doing something (going out of your way to do it also) for someone expresses love to them... an act that they cherish and appreciate... Do unto others as you would like them to do to you... Wife's Love language...

One of the best books I ever read... The Five Love Languages...

Other Love languages ... Physical Touch (Joe Biden takes this to extreme).... Gifts (my brother's love language as he is always giving things away because he loves to receive something even if of little value)... and Quality Time (full attention which is my wife's secondary love language)...

[roamer_1]

I just couldn't do it. I know me, and I have seen me not do it.
It ain't mine.

There was a time or two I strayed, where I found out I have a conscience that simply won't STFU. 

I don't know how any such folks could live with themselves.

Alright, I will change the deal a little bit:

You fell off the road and ran through a farmer's fence. Nobody seen it. You can just drive away.
Can you?