this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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The shopping cart thing is no longer a good test of character. The whole idea is there's no reward for doing it and no punishment for not doing it. Now that everyone knows that there's a large contingent of the population who could be judging them for their actions, it's not the same thing anymore. It's more like a test of how a panopticon situation effects people.
You just explained how society works.
ding ding
Id like to run a test where we silently observe cart return behaviour on hidden camera, and compare return rates with when we station people outside the shops to stare at cart users who are loading their shopping into their cars
Tldr funny cart moment from a guy who didn't realize I could see him until too late
I was once chilling in the car for a second after putting groceries away when the guy adjecent to me finished unloading, pushed the cart about 2ft away, made eye contact with me, then proceeded to act like he was stretching and not stepping back toward his car. It was a comical amount of time between the stepping away, eye contact pause, awkward stretch and grab the cart again
I would not be surprised if you got different behavior at different stores and at different times.
Walmart would be way down there next to Dollar Tree. Aldi's at the top because it requires a quarter - which is worth far more than $0.25 because who carries change anymore?
Unless you're in Europe
These things arenβt just tests of characters. They also generate character. Itβs a feedback loop, and itβs okay if you do things with a known context of judgment, because just adhering to the rules grows your credit with society.