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> This is the problem with stealing "easy money." It's hard to stop, especially if you don't spend the first portion of money wisely. Plus there's a weird psyc

by gwd 7y ago

> This is the problem with stealing "easy money." It's hard to stop, especially if you don't spend the first portion of money wisely. Plus there's a weird psychological effect in some people where they feel guilty and actually want to get caught. A few years ago I dropped my wallet somewhere, and someone picked it up and used the contactless cards a couple times. They caught him when, the next day, he was shouting and threatening people and generally acting obnoxious, and was arrested with my wallet (complete with my photo ID) still on him. Why did the guy suddenly get himself arrested? Why didn't he at least get rid of the wallet first? Maybe there's no connection between the two, but people are complicated.

IG_Semmelweiss 7y ago
No. Has nothing to do with psychology. The name for this in statistics is ergodicity. Nassim Taleb, an expert on this subject, as well as many other authors in risk management have established that even professionals in statistics fare very poorly in understanding ergodicity in real life. In short , its not psych, its human nature
baybal2 7y ago
I doubt that this played a role, that's just a such personality type which predisposes a person for crime and trouble, or the "without brakes" behaviour
- gwd 7y ago
  ...and one of the things that plays into that "personality" type is how they feel about themselves. It's a very common pattern that when people are treated better than what they think they deserve, they feel uncomfortable, and subconsciously do something to sabotage things, so that things go back to the expected and familiar. (I'm preparing to adopt, and that's one of the things we're consistently warned to keep an eye out for: children from chaotic, abusive households doing things to provoke you and make you angry, so that you treat them the way they're used to being treated.) People are complicated and it's difficult to find individual causes; and everyone responds to things differently. I'm not trying to say that everyone who commits crimes just has low self esteem. People have choices; and there are genetic and other environmental factors (exposure to lead being a big one). But it's quite certain that subconscious "I deserve to be punished" motives are a thing.
watwut 7y ago
> Why did the guy suddenly get himself arrested? Why didn't he at least get rid of the wallet first? Maybe there's no connection between the two, but people are complicated. Most likely, stealing your wallet was part of impulsive behavior. Your was not first wallet and him being threatening or obnoxious was not his first such time. Most low level criminals are like that.

by gwd 7y ago

IG_Semmelweiss 7y ago

No. Has nothing to do with psychology. The name for this in statistics is ergodicity. Nassim Taleb, an expert on this subject, as well as many other authors in risk management have established that even professionals in statistics fare very poorly in understanding ergodicity in real life. In short , its not psych, its human nature

baybal2 7y ago

I doubt that this played a role, that's just a such personality type which predisposes a person for crime and trouble, or the "without brakes" behaviour

gwd 7y ago
...and one of the things that plays into that "personality" type is how they feel about themselves. It's a very common pattern that when people are treated better than what they think they deserve, they feel uncomfortable, and subconsciously do something to sabotage things, so that things go back to the expected and familiar. (I'm preparing to adopt, and that's one of the things we're consistently warned to keep an eye out for: children from chaotic, abusive households doing things to provoke you and make you angry, so that you treat them the way they're used to being treated.) People are complicated and it's difficult to find individual causes; and everyone responds to things differently. I'm not trying to say that everyone who commits crimes just has low self esteem. People have choices; and there are genetic and other environmental factors (exposure to lead being a big one). But it's quite certain that subconscious "I deserve to be punished" motives are a thing.

watwut 7y ago

> Why did the guy suddenly get himself arrested? Why didn't he at least get rid of the wallet first? Maybe there's no connection between the two, but people are complicated. Most likely, stealing your wallet was part of impulsive behavior. Your was not first wallet and him being threatening or obnoxious was not his first such time. Most low level criminals are like that.