Posts filed under 'Honesty'
An experience in Finland during my undergraduate program at the Helsinki School of Economics truly brought new insight to the meaning and practice of honesty. My first and most surprising encounter with just how honest people were at my university was in the hallway student-run kiosk.
Part of the responsibility of the student body was to make sure a designated area in the hallway (the kiosk), where most students hung out during their breaks, was well stocked with snacks. This area had everything from gum (with Xylitol), 
apples, candy bars and certainly their famous salty liquorice candy called “Salmiaki” (definitely an acquired taste). The prices were on the front of the box or basket that had the snacks. Everyone that took a snack would simply leave the money in an open box next to the snacks (it was open in case you needed change). There never was anyone watching the snacks, everyone just knew that for this to work, everyone had to be honest and pay for their snacks.
I have to admit it was strange just dropping my money into this open box the first time I purchased a snack . At the same time, it really felt good being part of this honesty system and knowing I was doing my part to keep it working.
(Photo Wikimedia Commons)
January 29th, 2007
Taxi drivers often only get recognized for the bad reputation of their driving, especially in some of the larger cities around the world. If you go to Latin America, in some cases, you could consider it a substitute for a rollercoaster ride. They do deserve some positive mention though. This story shows another side of taxi drivers you might have not know about. Last week, I wrote about the honest taxi driver in L.A. that returned $350,000 in diamonds. This week, I’m writing about the results of a very interesting nine-country survey involving 900 taxi drivers. The results might surprise some of you.
This study was conducted in 2005 by PointSec and focused primarily on lost mobile electronics. Surveyed were taxi drivers in Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States. The sampled cities
in their survey were Sydney, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris, Munich, London, Great Britain and Chicago. The most staggering number of lost items was found in the Chicago company’s taxi fleet. There were 85,619 mobile phones, 21,460 PDAs and 4,425 laptops left behind by passengers. Only London’s sampled taxi fleet had a higher incident rate of 0.21 of lost laptops per taxi cab versus Chicago’s 0.18. Pretty amazing figures!
The great and very compelling part of this survey was that thanks to the honesty of the taxi drivers, globally 80% of passengers had their mobile phones returned to them and an amazing 96% of PDAs and laptops also made their way back to their owners. This week, taxi drivers definitely took the lead in demonstrating honesty.
(Photo Wikipedia Commons)
January 30th, 2007
During the end of our business trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, my colleague and I decided to do some sightseeing. We were truly impressed by what he had already seen in this beautiful city and wanted to make sure we made it a point to see a few more of the city’s top attractions. So we made our way over to one of the popular areas called Recoleta. On Saturday and Sunday the Plaza Francia hosts an open market called Feria de Plaza Francia.
At this Recoleta Fair vendors sell all sorts of arts and crafts as well as souvenirs. Here we found a lot of great gifs to take back home. At one of the stands, I found these great 
Tango coasters I thought would make fun gifts. When I paid the woman, I noticed I didn’t have exact change so I gave a $10 peso bill (I believe) and figured I would let her keep the change. My colleague and I continued walking down this plaza towards the fountain. There were dozens of vendors neatly displaying their goods throughout their stands. All of a sudden we looked and saw the woman that had sold us the coasters standing next to us breathing heavily (she apparently was running looking for us) and said I had overpaid her. She offered me either the $2 pesos change she had in one hand (today’s FX rate .64 cents USD) or another coaster she had in the other hand. I looked over to my colleague in amazement. I thanked her and told her I had purposely not asked for change, and there was no need for her to give me another coaster.
It really blew me away that this kind woman would have left her stand to find us when she noticed I had overpaid her. She could have easily rationalized it was only a couple of pesos that I could certainly do without. I think for the rest of the day I walked around with a huge smile thinking about this honest woman. It truly was inspiring and encouraging.
January 31st, 2007
In a networking event last night, I met a person who told me about an experiment that tested people’s honesty and highly recommended that I read the results. Based on this study and his own experience, he truly believes that most people are honest when given the opportunity.
So I decided to find the results of this test and see what it was all about. The experiment is called Wallet Test. What they did was to drop 100 identical wallets containing $2.10, a fake $50 gift certificate, some miscellaneous items and an ID card with the owner’s contact information. Hidden cameras then recorded the actions of each one of the finders and the data was compiled with the results. In case you were wondering where the study took place, it was in Belleville, Illinois which they consider “a medium-sized American city”. They also claim in their study that all the samples were random.
Ok, now that I’ve set the stage, you probably want to know just how many people did return the wallets. The results they compiled found that 74% of people were honest and returned the wallets they found. As a side note, let me just clarify that I am not endorsing this study or its scientific validity. I do think it is an interesting experiment about honesty and I am encouraged to find, based on their experiment, that honest people outnumber dishonest people 3 to 1.
I couldn’t resist making an additional point regarding the importance of an ID card or some kind of form of identification. As honest as a person might be, if they find an item in the street without any kind of identification, it is virtually impossible for them to return it it to its rightful owner.
(Chart Wallet Test)
February 1st, 2007
In the past, if you wanted to report something lost or found you were probably limited to your community. It was very common to see lost-dog or found-cat printouts on many light posts. Unfortunately, the reach was limited to a geographic area. The Internet has completely removed these geographic boundaries, and thanks to technology, communication has forever changed the way we communicate with others. With the click of a button, I can instantly be connected to millions of people on the other side of the world via e-mail, a blog or a forum. I can even be connected real-time with almost anyone in the world in a chat session, an Internet call or even by video, thanks to services like Skype. The greatest part is that it’s virtually free (it may cost you to connect to the Internet). This new-found power of communication has encouraged many people to use technology for doing good and making every effort to be honest.
Dozens of message boards on the Internet are filled with postings by honest people reporting having found someone’s valuables. In fact, according to an article by Andrew Ryan of the Associated Press, these posted reports include found cash, bank cards, diamond bracelets, engagement rings, wedding bands, digital cameras and even a cockatoo valued at $1,200. In his article, Ryan writes about a woman who lost her iPod during her daily commute. Her boyfriend tried to comfort her by suggesting using Craigslist’s lost and found section. Within 24 hours she had her iPod back, thanks to this free message board and the honesty of the person who found it.
Now with half of the U.S. population online, over 154 million people, according to an article on Forbes.com, being honest is easier and more convenient than ever. A few minutes out of my time could mean the world to the person that lost a valued item, and who knows, some day it might be me checking a message board hoping to find that someone took a few minutes out of their time to be honest.
(Photo Aaron Logan)
February 5th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts
