i found this article very interesting... social experiments are endlessly entertaining. kinda makes you think... what would you do in the same situation?
"We left 20 wallets around the GTA. Most came back"
Take 20 wallets. Fill each with $43.77 (enough change for a TTC ride and a little extra for good measure), photo ID, baby pictures, a grocery list, receipts, a contact number, an ATM card, a fancy hankie and a handwritten love note.
Now "lose" the wallets in high-traffic areas across Greater Toronto where people work, play and pray. Now wait.
[...]
Of the 20 wallets dropped, 15 have been returned so far. We're trying to reach two additional callers who left messages before this story went to press.
[...]
But before you start feeling too warm and fuzzy, sociologist Robert Brym warns about drawing sweeping conclusions, although he did say 17 out of 20 is "impressive."
"Twenty cases is an awfully small sample," Brym says.
"The results are almost certainly going to be idiosyncratic. On the whole, though, my guess is that in harder economic times, people would be more inclined to take the money."
Fact is, these results are not recessionary results – numerous studies link times of economic crises with a rise in crime.
[...]
Similar wallet experiments conducted by Reader's Digest and the Chicago Sun-Times did note that people in affluent areas were less likely to return found property than those in lower-to-middle class areas.
Our pattern of discovery showed that downtowners were quicker than suburbanites, and that more wallets were returned by men than women. Discuss.
for the whole story, click the article title.
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