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Civic honesty around the globe

(science.sciencemag.org)
209 points ojosilva | 3 comments | 20 Jun 19 19:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.593s | source
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jeremydeanlakey ◴[20 Jun 19 20:22 UTC] No.20236944[source]▶
At first I thought it was counterintuitive.

But after self-reflection, I'm more likely to report it if it did have money.

If it had money, I'd feel an obligation to protect it and return it to the owner. If it didn't, I'd feel more like it's their problem.

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1. mc32 ◴[20 Jun 19 20:25 UTC] No.20236974[source]▶
I agree. It depends on the value. If it's a wallet with an ID and CCs. Most likely the owner will at first chance cancel all CCs and request new ID. So the value is in the wallet itself. For the most part billfolds are cheap.

If it has lots of money that amount probably is a non-trivial amount to the wallet owner and you feel obligated to return it as you would want the same.

Looks like they didn't adjust for PPP when they did the experiment. Not sure it would make _much_ difference. But $13 might mean more in some places than in others. Even within the US. $13 in San Francisco vs $13 in dusty Fresno.

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2. davetannenbaum ◴[20 Jun 19 20:45 UTC] No.20237167[source]▶
Quick clarification: we did adjust for purchasing power parity across countries (but not within countries). As you surmised, even for differences between cities like SF and Fresno, the PPP adjustments would be negligible for the wallet amounts we were using.
3. asark ◴[20 Jun 19 21:37 UTC] No.20237640[source]▶
The amount of money in the wallet would have to be well over $100 before I was more sad about that than about having to get my ID and various other cards re-issued. I can't get closer to the exact amount where the tipping point would be without it happening, but definitely higher than that.

[EDIT] narrowing it down, I'd probably be sadder about the money at $500. So it's somewhere between those numbers.