If you were sitting on a park bench
and noticed that a "lost" cell phone was ringing, would you answer it? And
if so, and a stranger's voice on the other end asked you to take time from
your busy day to return the phone, what would you do? Hang up? Keep the
phone? Or, agree to return it?
That's exactly what Reader's Digest editors wanted to find out. And so
the world's most widely read magazine used its network of global editions
to conduct an informal test of honesty around the world, asking reporters
in the most populous cities in 32 countries to leave 960 mid-priced mobile
phones in busy public places.
Local researchers from each country arranged and conducted their own
tests, observing the mobiles from a distance. They rang the phones and
waited to see if anyone would answer, and then watched to see if the person
would (1) agree to return it, (2) call later on preset numbers that were
programmed into the handsets, or (3) keep the phones for themselves. After
all, these were tempting, brand-new phones with usable airtime.
The researchers tallied the results, interviewed test participants, and
filed their reports in many of the August editions of Reader's Digest,
including the Web edition of U.S. Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com) and U.S.
Selecciones magazine. While the study was not scientific, the results
provided a fascinating human interest story.
"What we found out surprised and intrigued us," said Conrad Kiechel,
Editorial Director, International. "In every single city where the test was
conducted, at minimum almost half of the phones were returned. And despite
the temptation that people must have felt to keep the phones, and the fact
that the test imposed on everyone's time, the average return rate was a
remarkable 68 percent, or about two thirds of the 30 phones we dropped in
each city."
The test followed last year's Reader's Digest Global Courtesy Test,
which made headlines worldwide. Like the 2006 test, it was developed and
overseen by the magazine editors in each of the participating countries.
Both programs dramatically illustrated the magazine's remarkable geographic
"footprint" by conducting simultaneous local tests and reporting the
results globally.
The highest percentage of returned phones was in the smallest city,
Ljubljana, Slovenia, with a population of only 267,000. All but one of 30
cell phones were returned. From a nun at a bus stop to a young waiter at a
coffee shop (who also retrieved a leather jacket the reporter had
accidentally left behind - not part of the test!), the residents in this
picture-postcard city in the foothills of the Alps were almost universally
helpful.
Could the citizens of a major metropolis, with all its stress and
pressure, be as honest? The people of Toronto, Canada (population 5.4
million), came close, returning 28 of 30 phones. "If you can help somebody
out, why not?" said Ryan Demchuk, a 29-year-old insurance broker, who
returned the mobile.
Seoul, South Korea, was third in the rankings, followed by Stockholm,
Sweden, where Lotta Mossige-Norheim, a railway ticket inspector, found the
mobile on a shopping street and handed it back. "I'm always calling people
who've left a handset on my train," she said.
Tied for fifth place in the rankings with 24 returned phones were:
Mumbai, India; Manila, the Philippines; and New York City.
In many countries, people said they believed the young would behave
worse than their elders. Yet, in the test results, young people were just
as honest. In New York's Harlem section, 16-year-old Johnnie Sparrow
arranged to meet a reporter later that evening. Arriving at the scheduled
time flanked by a group of younger neighborhood boys who clearly looked up
to him, Sparrow was surprised to learn that the lost phone wasn't lost at
all. But he was proud of how he reacted when he found it.
"I did the right thing," he said with a smile.
Parental influence weighed heavily with some. "My parents taught me
that if something is not yours, don't take it," said Muhammad Faizal Bin
Hassan, an employee of a Singapore shopping complex, where he answered a
ringing phone.
Many adults accompanied by children were keen to show the young people
how to behave when they spotted a phone. In Hounslow, West London, Mohammad
Yusuf Mahmoud, 33, was with his two young daughters when he answered a
phone in a busy shopping street. "I'm glad that my kids are here to see
this. I hope it sets a good example," he said.
Women were slightly more likely to return phones than were men.
All over the world, the most common reason people gave for returning a
phone was that they too had once lost an item of value and didn't want
others to suffer as they had. "I've had cars stolen three times and even
the laundry from the cellar was taken," said Kristiina, 51, who returned a
phone in Helsinki.
So, how did planet earth perform in the honesty test? Everywhere, the
locally based Reader's Digest reporters heard pessimism about the chances
of getting phones back, especially given economic and other pressures. And
yet, globally, 654 mobiles, or 68 percent, were returned.
Source: Reader's Digest Association
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