![]() "It's unlikely punishment concerns were driving results," Dr Cohn said. They also made a note of whether there were local laws against people keeping lost property.īut they found none of this could explain the increase in returns when there was money in the wallet. To control for the possibility that people were just worried about being caught, the researchers checked to see if anyone else saw the front desk employee receive the wallet, and whether there were any security cameras around at the time. "The larger the amount of money, the more worried you are about your self image - the more difficult it is to convince yourself that you're still a good person." Can fear of being caught explain findings? "They said the more money in the wallet, the more they would feel like a thief if they didn't return it," he said. Surveys showed people didn't like to view themselves as dishonest. While keys are valuable to the owner they are not so valuable to a stranger, Dr Cohn said.īut, he said, altruism doesn't explain everything. This was supported by findings that wallets containing a key were more likely to be returned than wallets that didn't. "One is altruism - where you care about the other person even though they are a stranger." So what's going on?ĭr Cohn said two factors could explain the findings. In field work involving just three countries, Dr Cohn and team found that upping the amount of money to US$94.15 increased the average return of wallets by 18 per cent. ![]() "This is something we didn't expect," said behavioural economist Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan. ![]() The researchers found that people in 38 out of the 40 countries were more likely to return the wallet if it had money in it. The wallets contained either no money or the equivalent of US$13.45 in local currency, a grocery list, and three identical business cards in the local language, which made it possible to return the wallet. In the study, published today in the journal Science, a team of people handed in wallets they claimed to have found on the street to front desk staff at banks, post offices, museums and other major institutions. If you found a lost wallet in the street, would you return it? ( Getty:aaaaimages) ![]()
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