有現金的錢包丟了，更有可能送回來

有現金的錢包丟了，更有可能送回來

People are more likely to return a lost wallet if it contains money — and the more cash, the better.

如果錢包里有錢的話，人們更有可能把它還回來，而且現金越多越好。

That’s the surprising conclusion from researchers who planted more than 17,000 “lost wallets” across 355 cities in 40 countries, and kept track of how often somebody contacted the supposed owners.

這是研究人員得出的驚人結論，他們在40個國家的355個城市安置了1.7萬多只“遺失錢包”，并記錄下人們聯(lián)系失主的頻率。

The presence of money — the equivalent of about $13 in local currency — boosted this response rate to about 51 percent, versus 40 percent for wallets with no cash. That trend showed up in virtually every nation, although the actual numbers varied.

有現金的錢包——大概13美元的當地貨幣——將這一聯(lián)系率提高到51%左右，而沒有現金的錢包的聯(lián)系率為40%。這一趨勢幾乎出現在每個國家，盡管實際數字各不相同。

Researchers raised the stakes in the US, the United Kingdom and Poland. The response jumped to 72 percent for wallets containing the equivalent of about $94, versus 61 percent for those containing $13. If no money was enclosed, the rate was 46 percent.

研究人員提高了在美國、英國和波蘭的風險。對于裝有大約94美元的錢包，這一比例上升到72%，而對于裝有13美元的錢包，這一比例上升到61%。如果里面沒有錢，比例是46%。

How can this be?

怎么會這樣呢?

“The evidence suggests that people tend to care about the welfare of others, and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief,” said Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan, one author who reported the results Thursday in the journal Science.

密歇根大學的阿蘭·科恩(AlainCohn)說：“有證據表明，人們往往關心他人的損失，他們不愿意把自己看成小偷。”科恩是周四在《科學》(Science)雜志上發(fā)表這一研究結果的作者之一。

Another author, Christian Zuend of the University of Zurich, said “it suddenly feels like stealing” when there’s money in the wallet. “And it feels even more like stealing when the money in the wallet increases,” he added. That idea was supported by the results of polls the researchers did in the US, the UK and Poland, he told reporters.

另一位作家、蘇黎世大學的克里斯蒂安·祖恩德說，當錢包里有錢的時候，“突然感覺就像在偷東西”。他補充說:“當錢包里的錢增多時，這種感覺更像是偷竊。”他對記者表示，這一觀點得到了研究人員在美國、英國和波蘭進行的調查結果的支持。

The effect of enclosed money appeared in 38 of the 40 countries, with Mexico and Peru the exceptions.

在40個國家中，有38個國家出現了受錢包現金量的影響，墨西哥和秘魯例外。