A study in England dropped 240 wallets around town to see which wallets would get returned.
The wallets didn’t contain any money or other useful items, just receipts or ticket stubs.
However, there was one key difference in each wallet, which is what the study was all about: DOES THE PHOTO YOU CARRY IN YOUR WALLET INCREASE THE LIKELIHOOD THAT THE WALLET WOULD BE RETURNED?
The answer to that question, apparently, is “yes”.
The wallets were broken up into six different sets, based on the type of photo the wallet contained.
- The control group, which did not contain any photo at all
- A smiling baby
- A cute puppy
- A happy family
- A contented elderly couple
- No photo, but paperwork indicating that the owner had donated to charity
The results were quite clear (and slightly similar to the study that Web Watch talked about earlier regarding people’s reactions to ugly babies vs cute babies):
- 88% of the baby photograph wallets were returned, the highest return rate of the study
- The puppy wallets had a 53% return rate
- The family wallets had a 48% return rate
- The elderly couple wallets had a 28% return rate
- The charity card wallets had a 20% return rate
- The control wallets had a 15% return rate
That is a significant difference between babies and puppies. Makes it almost worthwhile to go get a baby photo and stick it into your wallet… even if the baby isn’t yours.