"Citizens displayed greater civic honesty when the wallets contained money, but perhaps this is because the amount was not large enough to be financially meaningful."
New Zealand's reporting rate jumped from more than 60 per cent for a wallet with no money to more than 80 per cent for a wallet that contained money.
When the amounts were bumped up to US$94.15 (NZ$142.88) in the United States, United Kingdom and Poland the rate of reporting increased.
The authors conducted field experiments to examine whether people acted more dishonestly when they had a greater economic incentive to do so, and found the opposite to be true.
"Citizens were more likely to return wallets that contained relatively larger amounts of money," the authors said.
"This finding is robust across countries and institutions, and holds even when economic incentives for dishonesty are substantial."
When asked, respondents reported that failing to return a wallet would feel more like stealing when the wallet contained a modest amount of money than when it contained no money.
Such behaviour would feel even more like stealing when the wallet contained a substantial amount of money.
The results were consistent with theories that incorporate altruism and self-image concerns.
"When people stand to heavily profit from engaging in dishonest behaviour, the desire to cheat increases but so do the psychological costs of viewing oneself as a thief - and sometimes the latter will dominate the former."
