The unattended bagels

This is a true story about bagels. Feldman, an agricultural economist, led a research institute that analyzed weapons spending for the U.S. Navy. The institute's income came from a variety of research contracts. Whenever he got a research contract, Feldman always bought some bagels to share with everyone as a reward.

Then Feldman gradually developed the habit of putting a basket of bagels in the office every Friday for everyone to eat. Employees from other units in the building knew about it and came over to get a few bagels. The baskets soon reached the bottom. Feldman had to buy more next time, the most time a week to bring more than 100 bagels.

If this continues, Feldman himself feels that it is very uneconomical. In order to recover the cost of buying bagels, he put an empty basket for money next to the bread basket, with a suggested price on it. As a result, the unguarded basket recovered 95 percent of the bread money. Feldman was pleased and thought he had verified that people are capable of ethical self-discipline. As for the 5% that was not recovered, he believed that some people were simply negligent and did not pay.

Later, Feldman decided to resign from his leadership position at the Institute and specialize in selling bagels. Federman drove around the Washington office buildings, soliciting business in a very simple way: early in the morning, he would leave bagels and a basket for cash at the food counters of different companies, and then return at lunchtime to pick up the money and the rest of the bagels.

His economist friends thought he was crazy because, according to the "economist," people would surely steal all the bagels and he would lose everything. But Feldman himself was very confident, according to his own method to do. To the surprise of his friends, although Feldman did not recover as much money as in the Institute, but also to reach 87% of the ratio. A few years later, Feldman was delivering 8,400 bagels a week to 140 companies. He was making as much money as he had when he was a research analyst.

While selling bagels Federman didn't forget his job as an economist, he treated his business as a kind of economics experiment, recording every piece of data in detail. Feldman found that. By measuring the difference between the actual revenue and the amount due for the bagels sold, he could get a good test of customer honesty. Do they steal bagels? What factors determine whether some people take for nothing, some people pay, and some companies are more honest than others?

The data shows that people in small companies are more honest than those in large companies. A small company with only a few dozen employees typically pays at a rate 3 to 5 percentage points higher than a large company with hundreds of employees. This was somewhat surprising to Feldman, because he thought the bigger the company the more people would gather around the bread basket, and the more witnesses would prompt you to throw money into the money box. Yet this is not the case. In a smaller group, if you do a small, insignificant thing. Immediately everyone will be known, so instead of prompting you to be careful with your words. And in a large company, even if you take the bagel without paying, who knows who you are? This reasoning can also be applied to society. The crime rate in rural areas is much lower than in cities, in large part because crimes in rural areas are more likely to be known by all the neighbors in the countryside, and this is the effect of the environment on people's morality.

Based on observations, Feldman also believes that dirt is a very important factor. An employee who loves his job and likes his boss will be more honest. As for within a company, Feldman believes that the higher the level, the more freeloading occurs.

He once delivered bread for a long time to a company that was scattered on 3 floors. On the top floor was management, and on the two floors below were employees in sales, service and administration. The downstairs received significantly more money than the upstairs. Feldman speculated that because these management personnel were overly controlling, they were prone to dishonest behavior. But some say, meanly, that perhaps dishonesty is the very reason these people are squeezed into management.

The data also reflect that the mood of the individual also affects the degree of honesty. Weather, for example, is a major factor. Good weather can make people pay a good price. Bad weather, such as when it's windy and rainy, makes people pay a lot of money for nothing.

The most interesting thing is that the holidays also affect people to pay, some holidays make people bad, some holidays make people learn good. The percentage of payments fell by 2% the week of Christmas, Thanksgiving was not good, and Valentine's Day was not good either. The good holidays include July 4 (U.S. Independence F1), Labor Day, Columbus Day. "People also did quite well on the day of the 9.11 terrorist attacks. What is the difference between these holidays or anniversaries? Feldman found that the holidays with less theft are those days that create a sense of honor. The programs with more stealing were those days filled with anxiety and anticipation of loved ones.

There are environmental and emotional factors that influence people's honesty, but what excited Feldman most was not his discovery of why people are dishonest, but the fact that people can remain honest despite the lure of profit. Yes, some people stole bread from him, but the vast majority did not eat for nothing even when no one else was present, or when it was raining on a cloudy day or at Christmas.

Glaucon, a student of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, once described the story of an honest and pure shepherd who obtained a giant's ring in a hole in the ground and from then on had the power of invisibility. With no one able to watch, the otherwise honest shepherd stole the jewel, seduced the queen, and killed the king. The story raises a moral question: can anyone resist the temptation of evil, especially when he knows that these actions will not be noticed by people?

Feldman finds the answer; people can be honest. At least on the bagel issue, he is 87% sure.