The Most Honest Countries According to Science: Would You Return a Wallet Full of Money?

Losing your keys, losing your smartphone, losing your wallet with money and documents... traumatic and irritating experiences if there ever were any. However, under a controlled environment they can yield very interesting results, depending on factors such as region, culture, and local economic situation. A group of researchers from the universities of Michigan, Zurich, and Utah carried out an "Evaluation of Honesty" around the globe, with 17,000 "lost" wallets. The numbers they recorded surprised even professional economists...

Let's imagine you find a wallet on the street. It contains a key, a couple of business cards, a short shopping list, and a significant amount of money. The question is simple: What do you do? You have enough information to contact the owner, but those bills could get you out of a jam. Do you return it intact? Do you keep the money and try to return the rest? Would your decision change if the wallet had no money from the start or if the key were missing? A team of researchers from the universities of Michigan, Zurich, and Utah decided to analyze all these possibilities.

The study, called "Civic Honesty Around the Globe" involved more than 17,000 "lost" wallets in 355 cities across 40 different countries. The average amount of money in the wallets was $13.45 US dollars, but in some countries (such as the United Kingdom and the United States), a higher amount of $94.15 was introduced. It should be noted that in certain exercises, the wallets did not contain money inside, identified under the condition "NoMoney" in the chart we will share below.

The Most Honest Countries

To the surprise of the general public and some economics professionals, in most participating countries, the percentage of returned wallets with money inside was higher than the percentage of wallets without bills, even when the financial incentive to be dishonest was substantial. We only observed two exceptions in the chart: Peru and Mexico. In addition to presenting low return rates (below 25 percent), the wallets without money returned to their owners more frequently.

Now, why does this happen? What is the reason for people returning more wallets with money? The study uses the expression "theft aversion". The impact on personal image (that is, "seeing yourself as a thief") when not returning the wallet is greater as the amount of money increases. In other words, the psychological cost grows with the number of bills, to such an extent that it can cancel the immediate benefit of not being honest.

The most honest countries in the study are Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland. Spain is at the top of the chart, and many readers asked about Japan. The problem, according to the explanation of David Tannenbaum (one of those responsible for the publication), is that this country turned out to be incompatible with the parameters of the study. Why? Because Japan has small "police booths" that also serve as lost-and-found centers. In the pilot tests, the Japanese did not contact the owners, but simply brought the wallets to those booths.

Access the study: Click here