Prov. least honest city in honor system test, second year in a row

FOR THE second year in a row, Providence was the least honest city in Honest Tea's annual social experiment on honesty.
FOR THE second year in a row, Providence was the least honest city in Honest Tea's annual social experiment on honesty.

PROVIDENCE – Blame it on the person who tried to pay for his beverage with a fake $1 million dollar bill …
For the second year in a row, Providence is the least honest city in the country, according to the National Honesty Index, a social experiment created by the makers of Honest Tea.
Rhode Island’s capital city ranked last on the honesty index, which rated 27 cities from July 17 to Aug. 10.

The Bethesda, Md.-based organic beverage company set up unmanned racks of Honest beverages, offering them for $1 on the honor system, then monitored interactions to see how honest people were when no one appears to be looking. Information was collected to find out who paid for or stole their beverages. Honest Tea said it also tracked observable characteristics such as gender and hair color.
For the sixth year in a row, women were more honest than men – 95 percent to 93 percent honest, Honest Tea said.
Though the results found that 94 percent of Americans are honest, a slight dip from 95 percent last year, in Providence, the percentage is 83 percent. It was higher than last year’s 80 percent, however.
Atlanta was the most honest city with a 100 percent rating on the index, and Indianapolis was just behind at 99 percent. Boston was second-to-last on the index, with an 85 percent rating.
Other findings from the experiment:

  • One person in Providence tried to pay for his beverage with a fake $1 million dollar bill.
  • For the first time in the experiment’s history, someone stole money from the collection box in the nation’s capital. (Washington, D.C.’s rating was 94 percent on the honesty index)
  • Brown hair was the most honest hair color at 96 percent. Blondes, last year’s most honest, were a close second at 95 percent. Bald individuals were the least honest at 91 percent.

Honest Tea said it is donating all funds collected from the on-site social experiments to FoodCorps, a nationwide team that connects children to food and better nutrition.
“It’s always refreshing to see that Americans are more honest than most people assume,” Seth Goldman, co-founder and TeaEO of Honest Tea, said. “During these election cycles we are reminded that we have different views across the country, but that doesn’t mean people are dishonest.”

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