Thread: $100 note: Will you take it?

Alex saw a $100 note on the road, his conscience tells him its a bad thing to take what's not his. But because he knows if he doesnt, someone else might. So he picks it up. What do you call this kind of psychological thinking ?

Appropriate. Rational. Logical.

Also, what do you think? This seems rather obviously a question from school. Perhaps you're on a section relating to dissonance or guilt, or maybe the Erikson model of psychosocial learning?

Alex saw a $100 note on the road, his experience told him this was an item of value. He knew that it was a good thing to protect and preserve items of value. He could leave that task to someone else, but if he did so the $100 might be destroyed by a passing vehicle, or blown into an inaccessible position. There was, therefore, a powerful moral imperative to do the right thing and pick it up. So he picks it up. What do you call someone who constructs false guilt in a situation like this?

im looking towards an answer that relates to how he changed his decision/behavior based on what he thinks others is going to do.

Have you considered self-perception theory?

Psychologically, this is called "Its my lucky day !"

He sees the money and realizes no one 'owns' it, although he knows someone lost it. That lost owner will be impossible to find; if he advertises for the lost owner, how can he be sure they are not lying and just want their own 'free' money. So now he is already taking ownership by understanding the real owner cannot be confirmed. He realizes if he doesn't pick up the money, he is basically out $100, so he would have 'lost' $100.

Actually, this has happened to me once. I was walking along my street and saw a $100 note on the ground. What did i do? I picked it up and thanked my lucky stars!
I would have asked around if anybody had lost the money but i didn't because i wouldn't know if the person i asked was gonna be truthful. So i kept it and used it to buy a heap of books and paid a bill hahaha....
Since then.. i've not found such a large some of money but i have found a couple of gold coins... I guess it'd teach people to be more careful of how they keep their cash!

Mrsmile, your question is kinda awkward. Taking $100 off the road isn’t stealing, it’s finding. Now if he happened to see someone accidentally drop it…
But anyway, you’re “looking towards an answer that relates to how he changed his decision/behavior based on what he thinks others is going to do.”

Perhaps you’re saying he stole because if he didn’t someone else would.
What does that mean?
I don’t know?
I guess it means he did a bad thing, and convinced himself it was alright, because he’s already convinced he deserves $100 more than anyone else.
He believes he’s better than other people.
He believes he’s above the law.
I’d say this kind of psychological thinking is mostly Egotistical.

Originally Posted by pedronaut

Mrsmile, your question is kinda awkward. Taking $100 off the road isn’t stealing, it’s finding. Now if he happened to see someone accidentally drop it…
But anyway, you’re “looking towards an answer that relates to how he changed his decision/behavior based on what he thinks others is going to do.”

Perhaps you’re saying he stole because if he didn’t someone else would.
What does that mean?
I don’t know?
I guess it means he did a bad thing, and convinced himself it was alright, because he’s already convinced he deserves $100 more than anyone else.
He believes he’s better than other people.
He believes he’s above the law.
I’d say this kind of psychological thinking is mostly Egotistical.

i wasnt saying he was wrong to take it. i was saying he think it was wrong because his conscience told him so. but then he thinks again, he thinks that if he doesnt take it someone else might. so he take it because the possibility of someone taking the money comes into the picture.
so he changed his original personality/ attitude because the influence of his latter thought.

im not discussing morality here. im discussing psychology

He needs to have an understanding of the accepted customs of the society around him.
He envisions how others would react if they see him picking up the money, and whether that will impact his status in the group, or if he will be ostracized for performing that act.

He thinks through how the other must have felt losing the money, and puts himself in their shoes.
He wonders if it's possible to find the person, as he'd like the same done for him had he lost money.
He realizes that asking around would result in lies, and that anyone would say, "yes, that's mine" and that it was a silly choice... even though he feels bad for the person who actually lost the money.
Realizing the likelihood is low that he'll find the actual person who lost the bill, and realizing that picking it up will not harm his standing in the tribe/social group, he picks it up, but his luck is tainted by a sense of guilt.

I'm still not sure I understand what you're asking. He's weighing all of these different things together when deciding whether or not to pick up the bill. It includes the ability to "assume the mindset of others" and the ability to calculate costs and benefits.