Survey self-reports of social trust predict actual returned-wallet honesty

Evidence

Intriguing international evidence on the accuracy of reports about generalized reciprocity come from a study sponsored by Reader’s Digest. Four hundred wallets with $50 in cash and the names and addresses of their putative owners were left on city streets in fourteen different European countries. The rate at which the wallets were returned intact closely corresponded (r = .67) to the national score on the standard social trust question. In other words, where citizens report that “most people can be trusted,” they’re generally right, and where citizens report that “you can’t be too careful in dealing with people,” they’re right, too. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1985

Categorization

• CANDY: The Reader’s Digest wallet-drop experiment across fourteen countries is a perfect conversational fact and a vivid validation of survey trust measures.