"Wallet Test" in Illinois
 

"Wallet Test"

http://www.wallettest.com/

Webmaster deliberately drops 100 wallets in front of hidden cameras to test honesty.

The results page is a bit shocking.

Hardly scientific. :eyebrow:

I love the tapes of people trying to redeem the stolen fake gift certificates.

I completely fell apart for me with the editorial comment "this jerk tried to redeem the gift certifiacte..."

Could have been a great study if it had been done better.

Sure, properly conducted it would be interesting. I'm pretty sure it would prove people vary, but likely poorer people would be more tempted to keep it.;)

Because poor people are just bad people...[/blatent sarcasm]

That was my reaction as well.

Really?

I didn't think honesty had to do with need. From what I've seen, there are a lot of middle class folks who could care less about things that belong to others.

I think it has to do more with cultural values rather than income level or need level.

Which begs the question of which classes/cultures value honesty over others.

Maybe poorer people would be more tempted to keep stuff they find. I didn't think Bruce was being unreasonable with that comment.

I think he's right - or should be. To me, it'd be more reasonable for a poor person to keep things than a wealthy one, however, the realist in me knows this is not the reality. In some ways I think wealthy people are often worse.

That may seem likely on the surface, but poor people value what they have because they have so little. So that may, in theory, cause them to be more concerned about the lost wallet. If the roles were reversed, they would definitley want someone to return THEIR wallet.

Not that the Golden Rule is the driving force, but I wonder if there is some unconcious thought that comes into play.

But maybe my perspective is skewed by the type of poor people I have known (often immigrants) . . .

Sure, I've known many dirt poor people that are scrupulously honest and rich scumbags....just a hunch that to the poor it might be a much needed windfall that makes it more tempting. That said, without a serious test we'll never know.

Here's another one to chew on. Wealthy people would be less likely to pick up the wallet in the first place? :confused:

I'd say they'd be just as likely to pick it up, and at least as likely to keep the contents.

It has to do with values. The inner city has more of a dog eat dog morals while the suburbs are more on doing the "right" thing. Just different social standards.

I'd say that "successful" people (not necessarily wealthy) would be less likely to pick up the wallet. They tend to not want to be bothered by such trivial things.

In my opinion, though, these things are driven by a variety of factors.

There is class, of course, to consider, but also cultural heritage and personality type. I think the latter almost has more to do with it than anything.

Hubby grew up solidly middle class and I didn't, yet I would be the one to be very concerned that someone had lost a wallet. One time we found a credit card on the sidewalk. I wouldn't let it go. I had to find the owner or deal with it to conclusion.

He wanted to just call the credit card company and leave it at that. A little effort, but not too much.

The results page wasn't surprising at all, much less shocking. I was a little surprised a large majority of the subjects returned the wallets. Perhaps that should give me more faith in humanity.

Just for the record, I want to point out that this is most definitely spam, if on an individual level. Suncrafter is the guy who created the wallet test website. You may note that of his other 5 posts, 4 are mindless "yeah, me too!" tack-ons to existing threads, and one is the hypothetical "Titanic sequel" thread. On the one hand, I don't really mind because the wallet test website was moderately interesting after all, but on the other, if you listen to the recorded conversations he sounds like a total douchebag. YMMV. :)

This is my first post, so hello everyone. I enjoyed the wallet test because it does say a lot about what certain individuals would do. The best part of the test was how the redeemers told a BS story knowing that they were lieing and we the listeners knew they were lieing. The guy who claimed someone gave it to him in a bar was the biggest BS'er, his story kept smelling worse as he kept talking.

Welcome to the cellar, jsouthworth:D
They probably figured the guy that answered the phone is some drone that doesn't care as long as they give him some story.

While I see CF's notion that this is spam, I don't think it meets the classic definitition. If the web site had mass quantities of banner ads and such, I could see it, because then there'd be a profit motive. However, simply promoting a somewhat involved and laborious project is no big deal in the spam department.

Yeah, like I said, I don't really mind too much, it was the other "bolstering the post-count" posts that mildly irritated me. I felt calling him a douchebag was just enough to make us even-steven. :) Maybe he'll even come back and hang out awhile.

Perhaps the more formal term of "syringe" would have been a good compromise?

I didn't click on the link. Not like I need a test to tell me what I would do.First inclination would be to leave it there and not touch it because it's owner might come looking for it.:biggrindu

......or check for ID/hand it in to lost and found if one is avail.

It's not about you, skysidhe. It's the results of a test this guy performed and the resulting demographics. ;)

"big '0'" well I thought we were suppose to take a test!:o

Thank you - There is a BIG difference between "Promoting" and "Spamming".

Thank you for pointing that out. :)

OK, I will. Thank you for the invite. :)

This is all very interesting and somewhat entertaining, but what am I to do with this box of wallets I have?

Are the wallets trophies of your victims?

Um, it says there that you get subtle jokes.......

The question is, do you?

I think it was just a joke. I'm sure he/she does not really have a box of stolen wallets at home. LOL!

I'm not very well off & I live in an area where people are. I can't imagine being put in the position of whether to return a wallet or not as people keep such a tight grip of them here :)

I think where the wallet is makes a difference in who finds it and how it would be handled. Outside a payday loan office, come on. I would certainly have returned the wallet. Now ask me if it had $2100.00 in it. There are so many variables here it would be a lot of work to devise a really good test. I'd start with a large shopping mall to control the place and the neighborhood. Still, an interesting concept.

I am a very absentminded person in a family of absentminded people. When one of us has lost something, we have generally found that people are good about finding a way to get in touch and return it to us, even if it's a small thing.

The only time I can think of when this didn't happen was when I left my digital camera in the college library on night. Judging by the timing of when I left the library, when I called to see if it had been found, and when I checked the lost and found and realized that it wasn't there, it could only have been a library employee (probably one of those rascally young males! ;)) who pocketed it.

...and I hope this was a joke! Of course I don't have a box of wallets. Like you, I throw them away. (Place a winking icon here if you have one)

Oh for heaven's sake... Sundae Girl was asking if you (simian) get subtle jokes, not if you actually have wallets. Here, let's replay with commentary.

Ah look, a joke.

Another joke, implying that you actually killed the people whose wallets you have, rather than picking them up and keeping them as the thread has been discussing.

Simian does not get Brianna's joke, and thus instead suspects that she did not get his.

Sundae Girl, who got both jokes, is now subtly pointing out to simian that he in fact is the one who does not get subtle jokes. "The question is, do you (get subtle jokes)?" I think the answer here is clear.

lmao, clodfobble!