Losers: Recovering Lost Property in Japan and the United States

West, Mark D.

doi:10.1111/1540-5893.3702007

Cited by 27 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…In highly corrupt societies, where corruption and law evading practices permeate daily activities, such efforts may be dismissed or received with skepticism either because they do not have teeth to face systemic corruption or because they are not implemented consistently. As corruption is a social and political phenomenon, rather than a cultural one (as suggested by West, 2003, Papakostas, 2012), and is the result of the inability of a bureaucracy to structure interhuman relationships, anti-corruption measures per se will only be effective in situations where corruption occurs occasionally. In short, anti-corruption measures do not address problems of corruption in societies where they are a result of underlying bureaucratic weakness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of anticorruption policies on social and political trust: a comparative approach

Radin

2019

SRJ

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Purpose Corruption and anti-corruption are two often studied topics in social sciences today and often highly debated issues in both the national and international political arena. They are important in the context of democratization and democratic consolidation as they include the idea of a government that serves its citizens in a transparent manner, and tie with it notions of social and political trust. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between anti-corruption policies and social and political trust and hypothesizes that anti-corruption policies have a desired positive effect on social and political trust in settings with low and moderate levels of corruption, whereas they have no effect in highly corrupt settings. Design/methodology/approach The study uses regression analysis and includes all world democracies (33) for which complete data are available for a period of nine years (2005-2014). Findings Results indicate that anti-corruption policies have the expected results on social trust: in low to moderately corrupt countries, the effect is positive, while it disappears in highly corrupt countries. There are no significant effects on political trust. Research limitations/implications While the results are mixed, they point to the importance of studying further the relationship. Originality/value This study is important because it questions the effect of anti-corruption policies that are assumed to have particular effects on corruption. It is also the first study to analyze the effect on such policies on social and political trust in democracies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of anticorruption policies on social and political trust: a comparative approach

Radin

2019

SRJ

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“…Stanley Milgram popularized the lost-letter approach as an alternative to polling public opinion (Milgram et al 1965). Although popularized by Milgram, researchers have a long history that predates Milgram of placing "lost" items in different settings and measuring responses as a form of altruism or unplanned helping (Bihm et al 1979;Fessler 2009;Forbes and Gromoll 1971;Merritt and Fowler 1948;Simon and Gillen 1971;West 2003). A quasi-experimental study provides a highly valid measure of actual incidents of unplanned helping behavior.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why is Helping Behavior Declining in the United States But Not in Canada?: Ethnic Diversity, New Technologies, and Other Explanations

Hampton

2016

City & Community

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This paper explores whether there has been a recent decline in helping behavior in the United States. In a lost letter experiment, 7,466 letters were “lost” in 63 urban areas in the United States and Canada in 2001 and 2011. There has been a 10 percent decline in helping behavior in the United States, but not in Canada. Two arguments anticipate change in the level of help provided to strangers: the rise of new technologies, and neighborhood racial and ethnic diversity. Findings exclude increased privatism as a source for the decline in helping. In 2001 there was no variation in altruistic behavior based on neighborhood diversity. However, areas of the United States where the proportion of noncitizens increased since 2001 experienced reduced helping; the opposite was found in Canada. Possible explanations include changing attitudes toward noncitizens, and differences in public policy related to economic inequality, social inclusion, and the acceptance of multiculturalism.

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“…Some everyday examples suggest that permission is not needed for helpful actions that violate the right of exclusion to a lesser degree. For example, you are allowed to bring lost items to a lost-and-found (e.g., Lastdrager, Montoya, Hartel, & Junger, 2013; West, 2003), to mail a letter you find on the ground (e.g., Milgram, Mann, & Harter, 1965), and to help retrieve objects that were accidently dropped (e.g., Guinote, Cotzia, Sandhu, & Siwa, 2015; Warneken, 2013). Unsolicited repairs violate the right of exclusion more flagrantly (i.e., they involve modifying property) and are not needed to ensure that property is restored to its owner.…”

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confidence: 99%

Unsolicited but acceptable: Non-owners can access property if the owner benefits.

Stonehouse¹,

Friedman²

2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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People are normally restricted from accessing property without permission from the owner. The principle that non-owners are excluded from property is central to theories of ownership, and previous findings suggest it could be a core feature of the psychology of ownership. However, we report six experiments on children (N=480) and adults (N=211) showing that this principle may not apply for actions that benefit the owner-actions like repairing broken property. In Experiment 1, 3-5-year-olds judged it more acceptable for a non-owner to repair broken property than to move it. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this with 4-6-year-olds using different question wordings, and showed that children also approve of replacing broken property. Experiment 4 showed these findings replicate regardless of whether the non-owner and owner are acquainted. Finally, Experiments 5 and 6 revealed a boundary condition on approval of unsolicited beneficial actions: Both 4-6-year-olds and adults judged repairing property more acceptable than modifying it to suit the owner's preferences. These findings suggest that restrictions on non-owners are less absolute than often claimed, and that participants' judgments depended on generic information about which actions are typically beneficial, rather than on consideration of owner's specific preferences.

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Losers: Recovering Lost Property in Japan and the United States

Cited by 27 publications

References 48 publications

The effect of anticorruption policies on social and political trust: a comparative approach

The effect of anticorruption policies on social and political trust: a comparative approach

Why is Helping Behavior Declining in the United States But Not in Canada?: Ethnic Diversity, New Technologies, and Other Explanations

Unsolicited but acceptable: Non-owners can access property if the owner benefits.

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