digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Mark Rober's experiment suggests people are far more honest than expected, with about two-thirds of 200 dropped wallets returned across 20 North American cities, and 96% of returned wallets still containing their money. The results showed no meaningful difference by age, gender, income, or religion, while small towns outperformed big cities on average. The video's central promised list of cities ranked by honesty is detailed below.
Key Points
- Two-thirds of the 200 wallets were returned, and 96% of the returned wallets still had the money inside.
- Income and gender made no meaningful difference: 60 wallets were returned from both high-income and low-income areas, and men and women returned 23 and 24 wallets respectively out of 50 each.
- Small towns returned an average of 8 wallets per location versus 6 in big cities, which Rober linked to a stronger sense of community.
- The 20 cities ranked from least to most honest (wallets returned out of 10): Detroit (3), New York City (4), Seattle (5), Los Angeles (5), Miami (5), Dallas (5), Edmonton (5), Huntsville, Alabama (6), New London, Connecticut (6), San Francisco (7), Winnipeg (7), Washington DC (7), Parma, Idaho (8), Las Vegas (8), Nashua, Idaho (9), Hill City, South Dakota (9), Portland, Oregon (9), Chicago (10), and Salt Lake City (10).
- Disneyland was excluded from the data because security took in some wallets and refused to report how many were returned, leaving the total unclear.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Put your phone number somewhere inside your wallet, since Rober believes this likely contributed to the high return rate.
- Concrete instructions: If you find a wallet, drop it in any US Post Office box, and it will be returned to the address on the driver's license free of charge. Rober said he tested this and it worked.
- The wallets were identical and contained a fake ID with no photo, six US dollars and 200 Filipino pesos (about four US dollars total), an ultrasound photo, a handwritten date from four years earlier, a puppy picture, a fake loyalty card, a business card, and a "if found, please call" card with a phone number.
- Each wallet had a unique number so the team could track which city and neighborhood it was found in.
- In Las Vegas, half the wallets were dropped on the Strip and half in the suburbs; all five dropped on the Strip were returned.
- Among callers who were homeless (1), living in shelters (2), or panhandling (1), all four had full wallets returned.
Bottom Line
Most people return lost wallets with their money intact, regardless of age, gender, income, or religion, and the results suggest honesty is widespread rather than limited to particular groups.
