Civic honesty around the globe

1. Contact information should not be just an email address. It’s better to have email, phone and any locally popular communication channels. In countries such as China, people don’t use email as often as apps like wechat. Desk clerks are less likely to register an email address to return a wallet, especially when it doesn’t have anything valuable inside.

2. The difference between money and no-money percentage may be a better indicator of civil honesty. The absolute percentage reflects more about a “I’ll wait for someone to come” or “not my business” attitude of desk clerks.

3. It is better to put something important to the owner but not everyone else in the wallet, such as a driver license or national ID card. This could reduce “not my business” factor.

Great point about email. Speaking from experience, lots of people in India simply don't know how to send email.

For example my MIL is a medical doctor, so is obviously educated, speaks English well and uses a smart phone but wouldn't be able to send email to a new contact. Same with WhatsApp, she can reply to messages from us but I don't think she knows how to add a new contact to her phone.

They could always ask their kid or someone they know with a smartphone?

That sounds like something my mother would ask me if (and previously when) she didn’t know how to email someone. Although it’d definitely lower the “conversion” rate regardless given the varying smartphone/PC ownership combined with internet penetration rates.