Wallet Test (testing people's honesty)

suncrafter · Wed 03/10/2007 14:03:17

A sociological experiment was conducted in Illinois called the "Wallet Test". You can read about it at http://www.wallettest.com/

The researchers deliberately dropped 100 identical wallets (containing money and ID) in public places to test honesty.

The test results were broken down by age, gender and race ----> http://www.wallettest.com/Lost_Wallet_Test/Results_Page.html

What I'd like to know is why did men steal over twice as much as women?

Babar · Wed 03/10/2007 14:12:53

I get the feeling that with barely 100 tests, you wouldn't be able to gauge any of this information accurately. Personally, if it had an ID in it (admittedly maybe not otherwise), I would definitely have tried returning it.

voh · Wed 03/10/2007 14:53:09

If I find a wallet I'll make sure to get the wallet itself + any passes/cards (which I wouldn't use, duh) to the police or whoever dropped it.

The money, obviously, wasn't there when I found it

Becky · Wed 03/10/2007 16:29:43

Not a large enough sample group, not repeated even once in the same area, let alone repeated in other geographical areas

Pumaman · Wed 03/10/2007 19:08:47

Quote from: suncrafter on Wed 03/10/2007 14:03:17
What I'd like to know is why did men steal over twice as much as women?

Because men tend to be the main earner in the family

radiowaves · Wed 03/10/2007 19:41:52

I wonder if the IDs were women or men, and were they beautiful people? That would explain something.

Domino · Wed 03/10/2007 23:29:02

If i found somebody's wallet laying on the ground, i would take it to a police station. I wouldn't even bother opening it or even take anything from it. I might open it just to see if i could return it myself.

But if i do find money laying on the ground, then it's mine. I'm talking maybe a 10 or 20 dollar bill. Other than that i would do the same as above.

I'm Honest, and i'm truly being Honest about being Honest.

Mr Jake · Wed 03/10/2007 23:39:32

Depends how much effort it was to get to the police station..

Andail · Thu 04/10/2007 17:01:43

I returned a wallet I found once.
I also lost my wallet once and nobody returned it.
Double bummer!

Buckethead · Thu 04/10/2007 17:14:22

How exactly did they check if the people returned the wallets?

zabnat · Thu 04/10/2007 20:11:20

Quote from: Mr. BuckÃ©thead on Thu 04/10/2007 17:14:22
How exactly did they check if the people returned the wallets?

What you do mean?
If you lose your wallet, how do you check if you got it back?
1. You have your wallet. You don't have your wallet. You have your wallet. You got it back.
2. You have your wallet. You don't have your wallet. You don't have your wallet. You didn't get it back.

Sylvr · Thu 04/10/2007 21:18:02

Maybe he means how did the testers know that the wallets were returned?

Baron · Thu 04/10/2007 21:43:11

What I want to know is why they bothered to report on the differences between apparent races when the study ostensibly was "not intended to make any particular group look bad, reinforce stereotypes nor to further a hidden agenda of any kind." What do they prove by publishing something like that, except for negative stereotypes? A study that tried to interview the offenders afterwards and find out the rationale behind their choices would be much more useful and, well, valid. Where's the socio-economic data? Education data? Church attendance records? Family history? Psychological assessments? Not in this study. Instead they publish 60% of people who looked young and black were dishonest. Can we really call this research?

Ashen · Thu 04/10/2007 21:55:43

Quote from: SilverTrumpet on Thu 04/10/2007 21:18:02
Maybe he means how did the testers know that the wallets were returned?

Because they got them back. Key sentence in the first post: The researchers deliberately dropped 100 identical wallets (containing money and ID). They didn't just set up surveillance on random dropped wallets, they went out and dropped them, and waited until someone picked them up.

Admittedly, they wouldn't know if the ones that weren't returned were stolen by the people who picked them up, or if they were turned into a store and the store kept them, but it'd be pretty obvious which ones were returned.

Andail · Thu 04/10/2007 22:05:14

Regardless of their agenda, this research will be very popular among narrowminded racists everywhere...

Partly because this research lacks the tedious parts about credibility, methods, background info and control studies that other reports tend to bore their readers with. All it has is a simple graph showing Blacks VS Whites, easy enough, the proofs right there.

InCreator · Fri 05/10/2007 07:27:51

Heh.
About a month or so ago, I went to cinema with my GF to see Ratatouille. Tickets are only sold for cash, and we were late, so she stood in queue while I went to ATM nearby to withdraw some cash. There was a card forgotten inside the machine and "Do you want to continue" question on the screen. Must have been another rusher...
Our ATM's require PIN code only at the start and I was REALLY tempted to "continue" and see how much money there was, maybe even get some and make myself a nice gift...

Since cash is getting rare here and everything, including wages etc go usually through bank, I'm quite sure that there could have been enough money to make my day. Or atleast, get myself and GF a nice free evening.

Eh, moral dilemma.
Anyway, I decided not to continue, took out the other card and did what I needed to do.

Thinking clearly about it later, I had chills. And thanked myself for not starting any mess. What if the owner of the card remembered last moment, came back to ATM and saw me there? And if he was a boxer or something? Nice movie night indeed... When someone loses a card, he usually calls to bank and card gets shut down. But if there's money missing, he or she goes to police. And cinema lobby was full of cameras, maybe there's even some built into ATM, so they'd found out anyway...

But at the moment I saw this card and opportunity I didn't think any of this. If I were religious, I'd consider this a test.

Anyway, I returned card to the bank next day. But seeing a wallet lying in the ground, I'd empty it from money and THEN return it or take it to police. In a state full of bureaucracy, losing an ID or any other documents cost more time and nerves than any money in a wallet could pay for.

As for my own wallet, it's for show and few pointless cards. Money is safest in my pants' back pocket and even if not, I'm too lazy to search, open and close wallet every time.

voh · Fri 05/10/2007 07:53:20

ATMs often have camera's pointed at the face of whoever's standing straight in front of it. You'd've been caught, easy. I'd never use someone else's passes, even if it had the pin written right on the card itself (some people are so fucking stupid...)

shbaz · Sat 06/10/2007 08:20:32

I'm not a strict moralist, religious, or any of the other things you might associate with someone who would say this, but stealing money from someones wallet, lost or not, is really really shitty. I've had times when that might mean I don't get to eat that week without begging someone for money.

voh · Sat 06/10/2007 09:31:40

The way I see it, is that if you lose your wallet, you're a dumbass. If I lost my wallet I would assume the money'd be gone and I'd hope just to get my passes back (without them being used) because then at least I wouldn't have to get new passes and the old ones blocked.

Stupot · Sat 06/10/2007 11:49:28

I go along the same lines as Shbaz.
I'm no goody two-shoes but I'd feel guilty taking money from a dropped wallet. If theres a chance of getting it back to its owner then I'd feel happier to do that.

It's a different story if the money is on its own with no clues as to who dropped it, then I'd happilly claim it, but if it was in a wallet with names and IDs and clues all over it, I'd hand it in or most probably try to track the owner down myself (this way you might get a little reward).