Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
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Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#2Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?"
Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated.
Dollar bills generally do not belong in refrigerators. Thus there is no social norm reasonably explaining the purpose of the dollars in the refrigerator. The researcher needs to provide an explanation as to why the situations are supposed to be equivalent.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#3Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?" Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated. Dollar bills general…
Well said. Similarly, if I found 6 dollars in a parking lot with nobody around, I'd probably pick it up. But if I found a 6 pack of soda in the parking lot, there's no way I'm picking it up, except perchance to throw it away.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#4Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?" Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated. Dollar bills general…
you're right - I forgot that even name brand soda bought in 12 packs or more cost much less than a dollar per can (I think it's less than 50 cents for a 12 pack in cali)
Still I feel that if they modified their experiment to have quarters instead of dollar bills (or upgraded the cans to mini-bottles while keeping the dollars), it may have had the same result
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#5Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?" Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated. Dollar bills general…
That's an interesting question, but you can replicate this experiment in a variety of ways and see the same result. My mother is a nurse, and she has a saying that goes something like, "Leave a $50 bill in the break room, and nobody will touch it, but leave a plate of brownies and they're gone before you can tell people to take one."
Since it won't cost you much, try this: Leave a box of pastries or chocolates somewhere people congregate (the lunch room, a common kitchen, etc. Probably not on the street :). Count how many are left the next day. At another point, leave the cash equivalent. Count how much is missing at the end of the day.
In the vast majority of cases, the food goes (in the absence of explicit permission), but the money doesn't.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#6But then he tried another variation: Before doing the test, he asked one group of subjects to name 10 books they had read in high school. He asked another group to name as many of the Ten Commandments as they could remember. The group that listed the books followed the same pattern as the earlier test – they all cheated a little. But the group that named the commandments was different: Nobody cheated at all!
"Just the act of contemplating morality eliminated cheating," Ariely explains.
This conclusion seems like one someone wanted to make, not one that makes sense.
Couldn't it just be that people know the ten commandments are easily checked, so it's silly to try to make some up?
And I don't understand how they know people cheated on the books question. How can you possibly find out what books someone read while in high school? Unless they mean specifically which ones were assigned (which still seems hard to verify).
And if people listed some titles they hadn't read it doesn't imply cheating: they could simply be remembering incorrectly.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#7Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?" Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated. Dollar bills general…
That's an interesting question, but you can replicate this experiment in a variety of ways and see the same result. My mother is a nurse, and she has a saying that goes something like, "Leave a $50 bill in the break room, and nobody will touch it, but leave a plate of brownies and they're gone before you can tell people to take one." Since it won't cost you much, try this: Leave a box of pastries or chocolates somewh…
Don't plates of food carry implicit permission? One person wouldn't bring a plate full of brownies if she intended it only for herself.
And if she did she would make a note saying so.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting question, but you can replicate this experiment in a variety of ways and see the same result. My mother is a nurse, and she has a saying that goes something like, "Leave a $50 bill in the break room, and nobody will touch it, but leave a plate of brownies and they're gone before you can tell people to take one." Since it won't cost you much, try this: Leave a box of pastries or chocolates somewh…
Don't plates of food carry implicit permission? One person wouldn't bring a plate full of brownies if she intended it only for herself. And if she did she would make a note saying so.
Ok, here's another example. Only a few people I know, a small handful, have had roommates take money from them. However, virtually everyone I know has had a roommate take food from them (or has taken food from a roommate) without permission.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#9But then he tried another variation: Before doing the test, he asked one group of subjects to name 10 books they had read in high school. He asked another group to name as many of the Ten Commandments as they could remember. The group that listed the books followed the same pattern as the earlier test – they all cheated a little. But the group that named the commandments was different: Nobody cheated at all! "Just th…
I found that section confusing too. I think it's just the result of a bit of bad writing though. After rereading it, I'd guess they had subjects list books or commandments and then take the addition test.
Re: Would you steal a buck? How about a can of soda?
#10Question: "Even though the value was comparable [cans of sodas and a dollar] --and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?" Answer: Sane people leave six packs of sodas in refrigerators so the sodas get cold and in case those with access to the refrigerator get thirsty. The old idiom applies: treat others as you would want to be treated. Dollar bills general…
It said the dollar bills were placed in the same randomly selected refridgerators as the six packs. If it was independant it would be weird(er), but if I saw money sitting in a fridge it would mean exactly one thing: someone is paying someone back from taking liberties with food. To me it's implicit.
So, I think the experiment was more of an experiment in mind fuckery. Imagine, coke's show up-- sweet I'll have one (assuming I didn't have a ten commandments frig-magnet). I drink a soda, and after an hour or day they're all gone. (Maybe I only drank one.)
The the next day,... oh I guess I would need to know what the timeline was on the experiment... but say I take that leap to finish (I give it under 10% that this happened in the same weak though.) I, having only drank one soda, know someone else might've drank five. And perhaps, they, the 'other(s)' felt guilty when no more cokes showed up.
Basically I wouldn't touch some one's reparations, unless I knew it was me. And with my partial guilt, I wouldn't touch that sin money... I might throw in a buck.