What would you do if you found a wallet with $100 in it? Would you return it? Keep it? Well, if you’re like the majority of people in this world, you’d probably contact its owner and return the wallet without a cent missing. But, if the wallet contained only a few bucks, you maybe would call it lunch money.
At least that’s according to a new study published Thursday in Science that explored civic honesty, or doing the right thing even if it conflicts with our self-interest. The greater the sum in the wallet, the greater the incentive to give it back, the researchers say.
And, what better measure of honesty is there than money? That’s why a team of researchers “lost” more than 17,000 wallets in 350 cities across 40 countries and tracked whether the locals tried to return them. And, what they found out suggests that we shouldn’t always expect the worst when it comes to human nature.
