丢失钱包 钱越多归还率越高

Does the amount of cash in a lost wallet impact how likely a person is to return it?

Classical economic theories suggest that the greater the temptation, the less likely we are to be honest — but a new study turns the idea on its head, finding that altruism, and a powerful aversion to viewing oneself as a “thief,” outweigh the financial incentives.

A team of researchers studied these questions in a huge experiment spanning 355 cities in 40 countries — one of the most rigorous investigations so far into the intersection of economics and psychology.

The results, published last Thursday in Science, also reveal extreme differences between countries, with Switzerland and Norway topping the honesty list. But although rates of civic honesty varied greatly from country to country, one thing remained remarkably constant: Wallets with money, as opposed to no money, boosted reporting rates.

The global average for reporting a lost wallet was 40 percent, which grew to 51 percent when it had money.

“The evidence suggests that people tend to care about the welfare of others and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief,” co-author Alain Cohn from the University of Michigan said.

“Our results suggest that even experts tend to have cynical intuitions about other people’s motivations, often exaggerating the role of financial incentives and underestimating the role of psychological forces,” added Cohn.

The experiment, which cost US$600,000, is unparalleled in its magnitude. More than 17,000 identical wallets were dropped off at banks, cultural establishments like theaters and museums, post offices, hotels, and police stations or courts of law. The wallet would be placed on the counter by the research assistant, who would deliver it to an employee telling them they had found it on the street but were in a hurry and had to go.

Each contained a grocery list, a key, and three business cards in the local language using fictitious but commonplace male names and an email address, signaling the owner was a local resident.

Some had no money, while others contained the equivalent of US$13.45, adjusted for purchasing power in the target country.

In three countries (the U.S., U.K. and Poland), they repeated the experiment with even more money: US$94.15, which boosted reporting rates by an average of 11 percentage points compared to the smaller amount. They also found that having a key boosted reporting rates by 9.2 percentage points in the three countries.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【利他主义】lìtā zhǔyì

altruism the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others

【虚构的】xūgòu de

fictitious invented and not true or not existing

遗失钱包内的现金数量是否会影响其归还率？

经典的经济学理论认为，诱惑越大，我们越不可能诚实，但一项新的研究颠覆了这一观点。这项研究发现，利他主义和把自己看作“小偷”的强烈厌恶感会战胜经济诱因。一组研究人员在针对40个国家355个城市的大型实验中研究了这些问题，这是迄今为止对经济学和心理学交叉领域最严谨的调查之一。

上周四刊登在美国《科学》杂志上的调查结果显示，不同国家的人对捡到钱包的态度存在显著差异，瑞士人和挪威人最为诚实。

尽管各国民众的诚实程度不尽相同，但有个现象惊人地一致：装有钱的钱包比空钱包归还率更高。

从全球平均来看，丢失钱包的归还率为40%，而有现金钱包的归还率则达到了51%。研究报告的作者之一、密歇根大学的阿兰·科恩说：“研究结果表明，人们倾向于关心其他人的福利，讨厌视自己为窃贼。”

科恩补充说：“调查结果显示，即使是专家对人的动机也持悲观的态度，常常夸大经济诱因的作用，低估心理因素。”

这项调查耗资60万美元，规模前所未有。研究人员将1.7万多个相同的钱包丢弃在了银行、剧院和博物馆等文化设施、邮局、酒店、警察局和法院等地。

研究助理会把钱包放在柜台上，然后把它交给一名员工，告诉他们在街上捡到了钱包，但着急离开。

每个钱包里都有一张购物清单、一把钥匙和三张当地语言的名片，上面用的是虚构但很普通的男性名字和一个电子邮件地址，表明主人是当地居民。有的钱包里没有任何现金，有的钱包里则有折算成13.45美元购买力的当地货币。在美国、英国和波兰，研究人员重复进行了试验，在钱包里放入了94.15美元，这部分的归还率比现金更少的钱包平均高出了11%。

他们还发现，在这三个国家中，钱包中有钥匙使归还率提高了9.2%。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)