No. 052013–201640 countries · 355 cities17,000+ wallets
The lost wallet
In 40 countries, researchers walked into banks, hotels and post offices and handed a wallet to the person at the desk: “I found this on the street around the corner. I’m in a hurry; could you take care of it?”
Inside each see-through wallet were business cards with an email address, a shopping list and a key. Some also held money, some did not. Then the researchers counted how many owners got an email.
You first
The wallet is handed to you, and there’s money in it. What would you do?
This answer is hypothetical; it is not the same as what you would do in a real lab.
When the wallet contained money, what happened to the share of owners who were contacted?
Original result
On average, owners were contacted for 40% of wallets with no money, and 51% of wallets with money. In three countries where a larger amount (about 94 dollars) was added, the rate rose to 72%.
What we know today
The study was published in Science in 2019 and used a very large sample. Even so, rates vary from country to country; the average does not describe behavior everywhere.
The surprising part
Most people surveyed, and economists too, predicted the opposite: that more money would mean fewer wallets returned. The researchers themselves were surprised by the first results.
Sources
Cohn, A., Maréchal, M. A., Tannenbaum, D., & Zünd, C. L. (2019). Civic honesty around the globe. Science, 365(6448), 70–73. doi.org/10.1126/science.aau8712
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