The ethical dilemma that has existed for a long time is the "lost and found" one.
Let's hypothetically say that while you are walking down the street you find a hypothetical wallet with some money inside it. What DO you do? Hypothetically return it? Ignore it? Send it back to the owner? because we know there is always and ID with an address inside these things... or Keep it? What could make someone return a lost wallet? The answer, baby's... cute baby's.
Richad Wiseman, a Psychologist in Edinburgh left 240 test wallets "lost" around the street of this city, each with a mailing address so that a good Samaritan would use to return it. The wallets used had space to put a picture in it, and in this they placed "a smiling baby, a cute puppy, a happy family or an elder couple", all in equal amount of the 240 wallets used for the test.
So, what happned?
The wallets with the baby photographs in them had the highest return rate, 88% of them being sent back. Next in lime came the one with the puppy 53%, the family 48% and the elderly couple 28%.
42% of all the wallets were returned. The baby photos "may have added an extra motivation by triggering an evolutionary compasion toward vulnerable infants", said Richard Wiseman.
(Source : www.timesonline.co.uk)
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