Streets of lost letters

Not so long ago, British (what else!) scientists* conducted a funny experiment. They seemed to accidentally drop letters in sealed envelopes on the streets of London, which included the address of their laboratory. And then they calculated how many letters picked up and dropped into mailboxes by compassionate Londoners and guests of the capital would get to them. The idea is not really new – the “lost letter” method was invented by the American psychologist Stanley Milgram. But his experiment, carried out in what seems to be the 1960s, had a very different purpose. Some of the envelopes “lost” on the streets were addressed to organizations such as the Red Cross or societies for helping homeless animals. The other part – to the headquarters of racist parties or equally odious associations. As a result, Milgram stated that people are not bad creatures in general. Most of the “good” letters they picked up from the sidewalk and carried into the mailbox. And most of the “bad” ones were thrown into the trash. (For some reason it seems to me that the result was predictable, but science is science, it requires experimental evidence.)

So, the British researchers Ruth Mace and Jo Holland, whose experiment I started talking about, were trying to find out not at all. Half of the 300 letters they “lost” were scattered in wealthy areas of London, and the other half in poor neighborhoods. Scientists made allowances for the weather so that the wind and rain would not blow away the envelopes and blur the address, and in general they tried their best to maintain the rigor of the experiment. And here’s what came out. As a result, 87 percent of letters from prosperous and wealthy areas reached the laboratory. Of the poor and problematic – 37. On the basis of which the researchers suggested that altruism and well-being are interconnected. In the sense that the more wealthy a person is, the more willingly he helps others and generally does good deeds. Critics considered the study not too serious. And it’s true: no one knows exactly who picked up and sent the letters. What if they were not residents of the districts at all, but random passers-by? Or, say, janitors and even postmen hurrying on business – they certainly would not have passed by such a disgrace. And in general, 300 letters are not so many to draw conclusions.

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I, perhaps, also disagree with the conclusions of scientists (although the study seemed to me very entertaining). Because a simple thought came to my mind. If you take and scatter these letters, say, in Kapotnya and Ostozhenka, would you get the same picture? What do you think? For some reason, I don’t think so. And not because I somehow have a biased attitude towards the inhabitants of Kapotnya or Ostozhenka, God bless them. The reason here is completely different, and even many reasons. But the main thing, in my opinion, is that altruism and well-being may be related, but not directly. And through such an inexplicable concept as the norm. Do you understand what I mean? The fact that to live in warmth and comfort, without worrying about whether there is enough money for lunch tomorrow, is still the norm for a person. And counting pennies to paychecks, arguing with plumbers because of the ever-flowing pipes and not knowing how to pay for an apartment, albeit crappy and rented – sorry, no. And if you accept my point of view even for a minute, then make sure that in this coordinate system the results of the experiment with lost letters are very logical. Because in a world where there is a norm, a letter lying on the sidewalk is certainly not normal. And why not restore order, especially since for this you just need to bend down and then reach the mailbox. And in a world where there is no norm, this letter may not be noticed at all: without it, there are enough deviations. And I suspect that the norm is equally tight in Kapotnya and Ostozhenka, for the majority of the inhabitants of which their own well-being will also become the norm did not have time. Not to mention the fact that even if you pick up this unfortunate letter and reach the box with it, there is no certainty that our valiant mail will deliver it to the addressee, and even more so on time. And this is also the question of the norm.

And I also think that altruism, despite prosperity (that is, its absence) and the general abnormality of the environment, of course, also happens. And everyone can surely meet examples of it right on their street. The only pity is that this altruism – inspired, selfless and “hungry” – so far remains dominant in our streets. “Fed”, “normal” everyday altruism would not have hurt us for a long time. But here you don’t even have to start with the mail.

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* More about the experiment on the website of the University of London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1208/15082012-lost-letter-london-altruism