Scandinavian people were the most honest: scientists checked people from 40 countries

Sociologists now and then arrange unusual experiments to confirm their theories. For example, not so long ago, researchers from Switzerland and the United States decided to check how the reaction of residents of different countries to the wallet is different. Wallets were with documents, keys, money and a business card holder. The purpose of the experiment was a test for consciousness, honesty and the desire to help a complete stranger. As scientists expected, in different countries the results were very different.

In total, the study, without suspecting it, was attended by 17 thousand people - residents of 40 countries, from more than 300 cities. These were random people, employees of banks, hotels and even police stations, who "suddenly" caught the eye of a lost wallet. Wallets were divided into two categories: without money and with a small amount of money. And in those and others there were business cards on which there were addresses and phone numbers of the owners, so any one who found could, if desired, return the wallet to the owner.

As it turned out, most often it was a purse with money that was returned, while a wallet containing only insignificant documents and keys remained undeclared. The exception to this rule was only residents of Mexico, who returned about 16% of wallets with money and about 23% of wallets that have no value. At the same time, in Peru and Chile, there was practically no difference between the amount of return of empty and "money" wallets. The rest of the countries, including Russia, showed a clear correlation between the level of return and the contents of wallets. Scientists believe that a higher percentage of wallets return with money is associated with a high level of consciousness of citizens, as well as with the fear of being involved in theft.

As for the number of people who wanted to return the wallet with money, there is a clear difference between the countries. Somewhere, for example, in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and also in Switzerland, people returned up to 78-82% of wallets, while in other countries, such as China, Malaysia or Morocco, this figure did not reach 25% . Russia, with 59% of returned wallets, is in the middle of the list, ahead of the United States, Italy, Brazil, Israel and many other countries.

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