Honesty Around the World

[Ben]

This was an interesting study. Researchers dropped 17,000 wallets with money and items in them on streets around the world. Reporting rates are listed at the link, and the overall honesty was somewhat refreshing.

It was interesting that the higher amounts of money in the wallet increased reporting rate in many countries. I'm wondering if that's related to effort. If someone sees a wallet with no, or little money in it, is it too much trouble for them to track down the owner?

I was surprised that China was at the bottom of the list. I would have thought both culture and authoritarianism would have placed them higher, out of fear if not virtue.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/70

As an aside, I found it funny that the researchers were worried about crossing various borders with backpacks full of wallets.  

[Pb]

Very interesting!

Look at all the "high social trust" countries clustered around the right side of the graph:



I'm not surprised about China.  I've heard Chinese business practices are frequently dishonest.  There is no reason to think that would not be the same for regular people.  Communism breeds corrupt ethics also.

[Ben]

Look at all the "high social trust" countries clustered around the right side of the graph:

Yeah, I was wondering why they left Finland out. I'd be interested to see if it fits in with the rest or would be an outlier.

[lee n. field]

I am also unsurprised by China.

[Ron]

Hmmm, Western Civilization, high social trust, homogeneous cultures and demographics all seem to be attributes at the top of the list.

[makattak]

There were only two countries where they were not more likely to return the wallet when there was cash in it versus when it had little/no cash in it. Mexico and Peru.

(Also, they were very unlikely to return it under any circumstances but that's an interesting data point, as well.)

[HankB]

Couple of years ago I found a wallet in the supermarket parking lot - since the owner's DL, CCs and other IDs were in it, I was able to return the wallet (and all its contents) to the owner. It simply was the right thing to do.

I've never been lucky enough to find a substantial amount of money with no associated ID.

[French G.]

I always return it. Sometimes I even get a thank you. 500 euros, few hundred bucks, drivers license, military ID, credit cards etc and a thank you is too much. I got an iPhone back to the rich liberal charity ceo that owned it by mining lock screen enabled Siri for info. He was appreciative at least.

[RocketMan]

I don't see Japan on that list.  Back when I was employed by a Japanese company and traveling to Japan for business, we had been told in our cultural training that lost wallets commonly found their way back to their owners.  I wonder where Japan would fit on that list?

[Pb]

I don't see Japan on that list.  Back when I was employed by a Japanese company and traveling to Japan for business, we had been told in our cultural training that lost wallets commonly found their way back to their owners.  I wonder where Japan would fit on that list?

Very, very high I am sure.

[Hawkmoon]

I was surprised that India ranked as high as it did. Candidly, I expected worse.

And I don't see Pakistan on the list. Or Nigeria.

[just Warren]

Did they try this where they were sure there would be a lot of legislators passing by?