Professor Richard Wiseman has conducted a study into the return of lost wallets. The experiment had wallets with various different contents placed around Edinburgh. The results suggest that people are more likely to reunite a wallet with its owner if the wallet contains a photograph of a baby; many more of these were returned than the wallets with other contents, such as family group photographs, puppy pictures and charity donation receipts.
It's mildly interesting, but don't bother to hunt out a cute baby picture just yet. Although Wiseman professes himself "amazed" by the high number of sample wallets returned (a depressingly paltry 42%), as none of the samples contained any money, it seems unlikely to reflect what would happen outside the experimental box. After all, most people who lose wallets would probably have money and/or credits cards in them…
It's mildly interesting, but don't bother to hunt out a cute baby picture just yet. Although Wiseman professes himself "amazed" by the high number of sample wallets returned (a depressingly paltry 42%), as none of the samples contained any money, it seems unlikely to reflect what would happen outside the experimental box. After all, most people who lose wallets would probably have money and/or credits cards in them…
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