Not a mystery
Via MindMatters, a recent survey on returning lost wallets is baffling to "social" "scientists" and economists.

A team of economists found recently that, in a massive global study of 17,000 “lost wallets” in forty countries, people were more likely to return a wallet if it contained a large amount of cash. This finding “defied the expectations of both professional economists and 2,500 respondents to a survey, who predicted that people would act in self-interest.”

No mystery.

First, listen to people who DO understand human nature, namely swindlers. The old wallet touch always used a BIG WAD OF MONEY, guaranteeing that the suckers would want to return it. (The money was never truly lost; one of the swindling team was present at the "accidental" finding, helping the sucker to reach the correct decision.)

Second, self-interest IS the motive. A person who loses lots of money is more likely to want it back, which means more punishment for keeping the dough and more reward for returning it.

People who carry 10K in cash are usually criminals. They committed crimes to acquire the money, so they're perfectly willing to commit crimes to retrieve the money.

Non-criminals carrying big piles are likely to be performing a rare and important transaction, perhaps paying off a criminal. They need to get the money back FAST to save their own life, so they're willing to offer a reward.

= = = = =

Later, from the other angle: If I lost my wallet, would I offer a reward? Certainly not for the money. I typically carry about $30. How about the cards? At this point in life, they wouldn't matter either. Drivers license, debit card, SS card, voter registration. Only the debit card ever gets physically used. The others could be replaced at leisure. New thought: In fact I wouldn't even want the debit card. I would cancel and replace it INSTANTLY to stop thefts. The old card would thus be redundant as soon as it was lost. I've carried a wallet for 55 years without ever losing it, so I hadn't thought about the question before.

Later again: The Statcounter listings show that USBank read this item, without a referring link. Obviously they know that my debit card is a USBank card. Is that creepy? No. Their algorithms worked beautifully a couple of times in the past when the card's info was stolen online. The criminal transactions didn't fit my usual pattern, so USBank caught them and cancelled the card automatically. It's actually reassuring to know that their algorithms are still on the job. Thanks, USBank!

Labels: Blinded by Stats

  ¶ 4:18 AM