This one is a lot easier to model though isn’t it? If you accidentally drop a paper towel, the “psychological cost” of rising it from the floor is astronomicall

This one is a lot easier to model though isn’t it? If you accidentally drop a paper towel, the “psychological cost” of rising it from the floor is astronomically more than just using it - it would have floor dirt all over it. So it can easily go over your “nice person” threshold. Especially if as you’ve mentioned, there will be more towels on the floor - the broken windows theory. All of this is exasperated by the general fear of dirt in western cultures, which leads to a lot of other well documented ill effects, especially in children. People are just way too grossed out to actually clean up, if there are no tools to do so in a clean manner. All easy to explain, and you are right - if you do remove the littering option for people, and give them a reasonable alternative, they will litter less. But the cigarette butts? They have only the “there’s some on the floor so it must be ok” going for them. But even so it seems rather weird.