If you look at TV or the movies, and increasingly fiction, the Human Race is mostly depicted as worthless assholes who don't deserve to live.
This turns out to be untrue.If you find a wallet stuffed with bank notes, do you pocket the cash or track down the owner to return it? We can each speak for ourselves, but now a team of economists have put the unsuspecting public to the test in a mass social experiment involving 17,000 "lost" wallets in 40 countries.
Overall, 51% of those who were handed a wallet with the smaller amount of money reported it, compared with 40% of those handed an empty wallet. When the wallet contained a large sum of money, the rate of return was 72%.
72% of the people returned the -large- amount of money. This disproves the "Everybody Does It" excuse so beloved of scumbags and politicians everywhere. No, you assholes, everybody does NOT do it.
Authors and movie makers please wake the fuck up and smell the coffee.
The Phantom
Update: Welcome Instapundit! Thanks for the linkage, Sarah!
Update: Welcome Instapundit! Thanks for the linkage, Sarah!
15 comments:
<3
Y'all need to actually read the paper. It says no such thing.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/06/19/science.aau8712
Pay particular attention to this graph:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2019/06/19/science.aau8712/F1.large.jpg?width=800&height=600&carousel=1
What it says is that in homogenous, high-trust societies, you'll get your money back. In 'diverse' and low-trust societies -- you won't.
While I appreciate the link-- that Mexico is the only place where more money meant less chance of the wallet being returned cracked me up-- it actually does say exactly what the article said it did:
. On average, adding money to the wallet increased the likelihood of reporting a wallet from 40% in the NoMoney condition to 51% in the Money condition (P < 0.0001).
and
Shown in Fig. 2, reporting rates in all three countries increase even further when the wallets contained a sizable amount of money. Pooled across the three countries, response rates increased from 46% in the NoMoney condition to 61% in the Money condition, and topped out at 72% in the BigMoney condition (P < 0.0001 for all pairwise comparisons; table S9).
Reziac said: "What it says is that in homogenous, high-trust societies, you'll get your money back. In 'diverse' and low-trust societies -- you won't."
I did read the paper. If you look at the graph, the very worst result was totalitarian China. 10% of no-money wallets and 20% of the most money wallets were turned in.
That's huge. People are afraid of the government so they don't want to report things, they're super poor, and "finders keepers" is very much a cultural value. 20% of them STILL turned it in.
My point is, most people -want- to do the right thing, even in crap-hole Communist China or crap-hole Los Angeles. Some will do the right thing no matter what.
That's not what the Lefties say. They believe people are stupid assholes who always seek to do the WRONG thing.
What about totalitarian China says "high-trust" to you, exactly?
Um, can we remember to factor in that we're comparing these good samaritans to movies, TV and fiction? Those all require drama, and drama requires conflict, in greater and more intriguing supply than we find it in day-to-day life.
There is also room in fiction to, as a less enlightened age might have put it, "appeal to the better angels of our natures".
Note the popularity of movies about heroes. People seek out inspiring examples, and seek to emulate them.
No doubt there is a market for "everyone's a jerk" stories. But there's a market for inspiration as well.
It probably also depends how you define the term "asshole." ;)
https://youtu.be/tVJC0LJTYZc
Unkle Mikey asks: "What about totalitarian China says "high-trust" to you, exactly?"
Absolutely nothing. And yet, even given that, 20% of people still returned the wallet with the money in it. One would expect none of it would be returned.
The Sanity Inspector said: "Um, can we remember to factor in that we're comparing these good samaritans to movies, TV and fiction?"
Yes, that was in fact my point. The FICTION is that people are untrustworthy assholes who deserve whatever happens to them. It is a constant drumbeat in modern fiction. The post-apocalyptic wasteland, the rapacious corporation, the anti-hero, the drug-numbed masses, etc.
All completely untrue. But because its a never-ending waterfall of shit, people -think- its true.
Reminds me of a story Robert Fulghum repeated in his first book EVERYTHING I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, where he talked about a guy who decided to test the theory of "people are no damn good" with cab drivers. He went to New York and posed as a wealthy foreigner with little knowledge of English or the city, then rode around in cabs all day to see if anyone would cheat him. Twenty-six out of twenty-seven drivers took him straight to his destination and charged him correctly; several even refused to take him when he deliberately asked for an address within a minute's walking distance, and went so far as to get out of their cab and point out where his requested destination was.
I myself have found that even customer service and complaints staff, where people are frazzled to the bone by their work, are far more helpful when I approach them with a big friendly smile, a pleased expression and a cheerful, "Hi! I hope you can help me!" rather than the peeved glower I imagine they must have to deal with so often. It's amazing how often people will respond positively to simple friendliness.
Daniel in Brookline said: "Note the popularity of movies about heroes. People seek out inspiring examples, and seek to emulate them."
Yes, they do. And we have few enough of them these days to make each one remarkable. I'm sure the pressure to make Captain America one more feet-of-clay anti-hero asshole was profound.
Heroes don't fit the narrative.
I live in a medium sized city with a diverse population, and take advantage of the cultural and entertainment opportunities there, so I go to a lot of events attended by large numbers of people like concerts, festivals, and ballgames. I don't see line cutting, shoving, threatening, or fighting basically ever, and certainly much less than I had experienced in my youth. People don't complain when they have to wait to be wanded to get into a show. I don't know nor particularly care what strangers out in public think, I can only assess their behavior. I don't SEE the assholes.
Stephen J.
Very true. Once, years ago, I was stuck in Denver airport and saw a man complaining at the gate because the poor representative behind the counter was unable to make an aircraft be cleared to board and take off immediately (there were funnel clouds visible through the windows behind her).
After the man left, I said to her, "What a jerk! Like you're able to wave your magic wand and make the skies clear. When I worked in customer service for an airline, I HATED dealing with guys like that." She looked shocked. She asked if she could see my boarding pass, and I said, "Sure." I handed it over. She typed in a few commands, printed up a new one, and said, "You've just been upgraded to first class. You have a great day, sir!" Then she left.
You really do get more flies with honey.
I think this shows that the natural law pace Mere Christianity, really is written in people's hearts.
If we were just "mostly not assholes" the big spike would be empty vs full, and no difference between little cash and lots.
Returning the wallet takes effort. The more valuable the wallet is to the owner, the more it feels worth it to you to take the time to return it.
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