The Lost Wallet Test

Picture this: you're working a slow shift in a hotel lobby when someone hurriedly approaches the front desk. They found a lost wallet around the corner but are in a rush and don't have time to follow up. They ask if you can handle it and then run off. As you inspect the wallet, you find a key, a grocery list, about $13, and three business cards with a name and email that likely belong to the owner. Now, what would you do in this situation?

Between 2013 and 2016, a global experiment unfolded, involving over 17,000 front-desk workers worldwide. Little did they know that they were unwitting participants in a massive study of honesty, which surprised top economists and researchers running the experiment. To comprehend their expectations, we must first define honesty.

Honesty extends beyond actively telling the truth in interpersonal relationships. It forms the foundation of a healthy society, influencing public services, business transactions, and government policies. Consequently, economists, psychologists, and sociologists consider understanding the driving forces behind honesty as a vital research subject. However, investigating honesty becomes challenging when individuals are aware of being observed. Hence, researchers have devised clever methods to analyze behavior outside the controlled environment of a lab.

In a groundbreaking study conducted by the universities of Michigan, Utah, and Zurich, known as the Lost Wallet Test, 13 research assistants embarked on a journey to 355 cities across 40 countries. They recreated the same scenario in hotels, banks, public offices, and cultural establishments. Transparent wallets allowed participants to see their contents, with half of them containing a key, grocery list, and business cards, while the other half also held the equivalent of roughly $13.

The researchers hypothesized that the presence of money would discourage honesty. They believed participants' self-interest would override two competing factors: their altruistic desire not to harm the wallet's owner and their aspiration to maintain a positive self-image. People generally perceive themselves as good and honest but often find ways to justify stealing small amounts of money. Moreover, since the victim of their crime would be abstract, having never met the wallet's owner, and considering the wallet's origin from another location, it seemed unlikely they would ever cross paths.

Based on these reasons, researchers expected wallets containing money to be reported less frequently, a sentiment shared by the 279 economists surveyed. However, to their astonishment, the study revealed the opposite. While only 46% of cash-free wallets were reported, 61% of cash wallets were returned. This pattern persisted globally, irrespective of participants' age, gender, or whether they were observed during the wallet drop-off. Surprisingly, when the researchers heightened the temptation by including wallets with nearly $100, people reported 72% of these high-value wallets.

Numerous theories attempt to explain why honesty increases as the value of the wallet grows. The $100 wallet undoubtedly amplifies self-interest, but international follow-up surveys unveiled that taking larger sums of money felt more like theft, making it harder to maintain a positive self-image. Additionally, higher financial stakes may heighten the perceived harm to the wallet's owner. Some suggest that the context of professional settings could alter individuals' commitment to honesty, implying that participants might have acted differently outside the office.

Nevertheless, this result challenges the notion that self-interest is an overpowering force. Viewing oneself as an honest person can serve as a powerful motivator to act with honesty. By setting a positive example, celebrating acts of honesty, and promoting ethical behavior, we can collectively foster an honest society that we can all rely upon.

In conclusion, the Lost Wallet Test shed light on the surprising power of honesty. Despite expectations that money would discourage reporting, the study demonstrated that people were more likely to return wallets containing cash. This suggests that individuals' self-perception as honest beings can strongly influence their behavior. By nurturing a culture of honesty, we can build a society where trust and integrity prevail, benefiting us all.

Henrik Leandro