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Complete armchair analysis but I'd have thought this is definitely more about empathy than viewing oneself as a thief? I imagine a lot of people would look at a
by didntcheck 3y ago
Complete armchair analysis but I'd have thought this is definitely more about empathy than viewing oneself as a thief? I imagine a lot of people would look at a lost $1000 and think "I'd be devastated if I lost that!", and therefore put the effort into returning it. But I have to admit that if I found a wallet that only had $10 in, I wouldn't keep it but I would be a lot more lazy about returning it because "I can't really be arsed and he's probably not missing it much"
In terms of "viewing oneself as a thief", I feel like I would do that even if I kept the $10 wallet, though I guess maybe I would feel like more of one the higher the amount is
- davetannenbaum 3y agoWe tested both ideas (altruism and theft aversion) in the paper. Short answer is we find evidence for both. For somewhat technical reasons, we think the "viewing oneself as a thief" component is probably necessary in order to observe higher return rates for wallets with money than wallets without money. But certainly both elements are at play.