In an interesting social experiment, the company Honest Tea found out how honest people are, across the country. Based on the honor system, this experiment looked at whether people paid for their tea when they thought no one was looking.
National Honesty Index: Most people in the country are honest
The makers of Honest Tea set up stands in 27 cities across the country with signs stating that each bottle of tea costs one dollar. They left the stands unmanned, but observed how people behaved, from a distance. The survey did not surprise, for the most part. Overall, 94% of people surveyed paid for the tea, which is slightly down from last year’s 95%. Honest Tea, a company that makes organic tea beverages has been conducting this not-so-scientific survey for six years in a row now.
Honest Tea Survey: Atlanta is the most honest city in America
When cities were compared, with respect to their honesty, Atlanta grabbed the first place with an honesty rating of 100%. This just means that of all the people who stopped at the stand, each person paid. Indianapolis came a close second with 99% honesty and Houston, Philadelphia and San Diego were tied at the third spot with 97%. The least honest city two times in a row is Providence, RI with 83%. For the first time in the history of this experiment, a person actually stole money from the donation box in Washington, DC.
Women are a teensy bit more honest than men
The experiment also stratified honest behavior based on hair color and gender. Women seem to be more honest at 95% compared to men at 93%. Brunettes appear to be the most honest with a rating of 96%. This honesty declined from blonde to black-haired people to people who were bald with the lowest honesty index of 91%.
This social experiment wasn’t conducted with proper controls and the randomization techniques used by most scientific studies. Therefore, the outcomes should be viewed in the same vein. Nevertheless, the results are quite comforting and reinforce our belief that when given a choice, most people are honest.
