新編大學(xué)英語(yǔ)第四冊(cè)u(píng)nit4 Text B: How Honest Are We?

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UNIT 4 AFTER-CLASS READING 1; New College English (IV)

How Honest Are We?

1 How honest are Asians today? Do people in the region's smaller communities have more integrity than residents of the mega-cities? What motivates people to do the right thing?

2 Over a four-month period late last year, we tried to find out with a simple test. We visited 14 cities, towns and communities in nine countries. In each, we "lost" ten ordinary wallets filled with the local equivalent of $10 to $50 in cash, a local address and phone number, classified ads from local newspapers, handwritten shopping lists everything needed to make the wallets look real. Then we waited to see what would happen.

3 In each country, a reporter from our Asia headquarters in Hong Kong was joined by two local reporters. Together, they made the drops in front of temples, at airports, in malls. "It was incredibly difficult trying not to be seen dropping the wallets," one of them said.

4 The best method was for the "dropper" to lean down, tie a shoelace and put down the wallet when he or she was sure nobody was looking. Our dropper then walked away, while a colleague nearby pretending to be window-shopping or in conversation on a public telephone, watched what happened.

5 Most of the wallets were picked up within minutes. Occasionally, though, the test required patience. In Hong Kong's Central district, one wallet lay unnoticed on the edge of a flower bed in busy Statue Square for an entire lunch hour. One wallet lay on the long-distance desk of Seoul's main telephone office for an hour before someone spotted it and turned it in.

6 When we saw someone give a wallet to a security guard or someone in charge, we approached the person and conducted an interview on the spot. Some finders walked away and later telephoned the number in the wallet to arrange its return; we revealed our secret and interviewed them. But others, we never heard from.

7 Why did we undertake this experiment? Instead of asking for opinions about personal honesty and ethics, as pollsters do, we wanted to watch people in action as they wrestled with a real-life moral dilemma. We have always been concerned with questions of right and wrong, and thought this experiment would give us insights into how ordinary people would react when confronted with an everyday ethical choice.

8 The results were more revealing than we expected.

9 Overall, out of 140 wallets we dropped across Asia, 80 were returned 57 percent. A similar experiment in Europe resulted in almost identical totals. Out of 200 wallets dropped in Europe, 116 were returned 58 percent. In the United States, the return rate was slightly higher: 80 out of 120 67 percent.

10 In the US, only one person declined to take the money in the wallet when it was offered as a reward for being honest. In Europe, more than a quarter refused to take the money. In Asia, a staggering 72 percent of those who returned the wallets 58 of 80 said no to any reward.

11 "I cannot accept a reward for having done the right thing," said a university student in Seoul. Among those who did accept the money, several said they intended to donate it to a charity or religious organization.

12 Within Asia we found other interesting results. Two-thirds of all our wallets were retrieved by men. But once the wallet was picked up, it made little difference whether the finder was male or female. In our study, 58 percent of the women who picked up wallets returned them and so did 56 percent of the men.

13 Are the people in Asia's giant population centers less honest than in its smaller cities? It seemed so. The lowest combined rate of return still a respectable 50 percent was in the three largest cities visited: Seoul, Bombay and Manila. The best rates of return were in the less populous cities Singapore; Inchon, Korea; Trivandrum, India; and Kamakura, Japan with populations ranging from 180,000 to 2. 8 million.

14 Asia's most impoverished countries generally fared as well as those where living standards are high. The combined return rate for Korea, Hong Kong and Japan was 60 percent 24 of 40. The combined return rate for India and the Philippines was 53 percent 21 of 40.

15 There were other interesting patterns: four out of five wallets "lost" in hospitals were returned. So, too, were ten of the 13 wallets dropped in banks and post offices, as were all four of the wallets in hotel lobbies. Three of the four wallets we dropped near police stations and eight of ten we left in and around churches, temples, shrines and mosques came back.

16 On the other hand, six of the 12 wallets we dropped in city halls and other municipal buildings disappeared, as did 11 of the 13 wallets we left on streets, public plazas and parks.

17 We dropped a dozen wallets at various schools. Eight of 12 were returned with all the money and documents inside. The only campus where none came back was in Bangkok, Thailand. There, both of our wallets disappeared one into the hands of girls wearing the crisp black skirts and white blouses that are both uniform and status symbol.

18 The phrase we heard over and over throughout Asia when someone returned a wallet was simple: "It's the right thing to do." And this "wallet test" made clear the role family and religion play in setting our moral compasses. A 42 year old senior police officer at the International Airport outside Manila echoed the sentiments of many. "My parents taught me not to take what's not mine. I've always tried to teach my children the same values."

19 A large number of those who returned wallets cited their belief in God. "Being a Muslim, I'm aware of temptation and how to overcome it," said a Malaysian woman, who runs a fruit stall with her husband. Several people turned to their houses of worship for help. "They came to me and said: 'Father, please find the owner,'" a priest at St. Joseph's Cathedral told us.

20 Even the minority who kept the wallets reminded us that almost everyone has a conscience. The surest signs of that were the furtive looks and guilty glances of nearly all who pocketed the wallets. They knew they were doing wrong.

21 A Japanese woman found one of our wallets beside the prayer wheel at a temple. When asked why she hurried to turn it in, she said: "I was told to do this since I was a little girl. I think most Japanese will do the same."

22 Our experience proved she was right. Not only about most Japanese but about most people.