"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.