Would you pick up the wallet ?

[UM-Bot]

If you came across a wallet on the street, would you leave it there or would you pick it up ?

 

[acute]

This is one of my favourite Derren Brown tricks. It is mind-blowing!  Without the circle, the wallet would be picked up straightaway. 

Edited August 27, 2017 by acute
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[Lilly]

The circle makes it look like it's part of a police investigation, and most people simply don't want to muck with a police investigation.

[acute]

1 minute ago, Lilly said:

The circle makes it look like it's part of a police investigation, and most people simply don't want to muck with a police investigation.

I would like to know if that's true. They should have asked the people afterwards (further down the street) why they ignored it.

It seems to me that it was a psychological barrier, as if it was invisible to most of them.

[Lilly]

In the past chalk lines at crime scenes were used, now it's mostly only found in media (like TV shows). That said, people watch TV and I suspect were influenced by the idea that the police were somehow involved with the wallet.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_outline

[GlitterRose]

The circle does make this a different scenario. It can't just be a lost wallet. Someone knows it's there. 

[Opus Magnus]

This is something I've gone over a lot.  It partly has to do with a Mosaic law, and what is really happening.  In this law it says, that if you come across something of your neighbor's that has gone missing, it's the law you have to return your neighbor's missing thing you found.  So, if you find a wallet, you might want to pick it up immediately, incase a thief comes around.  Even if you don't know the person.The downside is, that if you don't know the person, and you pick it up, they might come back if they found out they lost their wallet, and come looking, but it's not there because you pick it up to return it to them.  So, it might take some weighing to figure out which you should do.

Though, if you wanted to look in New Testament, I think you might run into even more trouble trying to figure out which is right, leaving it there, or picking it up.