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HONESTY benchmark
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How honest can one get in life everyday? Find out from this study.
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MR. & Ms Honesty are alive and kicking, all over Asia and traditionally held values are not quite eroded, yet. This is the happy feeling you get, going through the results of a broad survey Reader's Digest did, asking `more than 1,600 people across Asia how they would act if faced with 10 everyday dilemmas'. It is to be published in its April issue. Among the 16 cities where people above 18 were quizzed, Kochi and Mumbai were the only cities in India.
When no one but the Almighty is watching you, how honest do you get? Will you steal a towel from the hotel you stay in? Only five per cent of those questioned said they would do so, in India, while the Asian average was 6! Mohan Sivanand, Deputy Editor, who was in Kochi for the survey, said that a city chauffeur disclosed that though he would never do it, his son-in-law, who is an MBA, did it all the time. Another marketing executive said that his boss did it often, but he would not think of doing it. So age and station in life have little to do with honesty, after all.
Kochi folks are colourful, in some ways. On whether it would be okay to take office stationery home, a law college student in Kochi said she would do it, because she asked her mother to bring home stationary from the office, and she did it. A parent showing the example seems important as proved by another woman who answered thus to a query on whether she would take back extra cash that the supermarket guy returned, as balance: If I am with my children, I'd take the money back, but if I'm alone, I'd keep it.
A whopping 97 per cent of Kochiites said they would return any wallet they found with the address of the owner in it, as against the Asian average of 85 per cent who said they would do the same. Something to cheer about, if they really meant it!
One very tricky question, of the ten, asked was: You see your best friend's husband/wife having what appears to be a romantic dinner with a stranger. Would you feel obliged to tell your friend what you have seen? Less than half the respondents said they would. But a software engineer in Kochi was vexed at the question. "That doesn't happen in Kochi," was the response. The answers, whether yes or no, always had the best of intentions to back them. "One guy in Kochi gave a very different answer. He said he would not tell his friend but would speak to the woman concerned, to din some sense into her," said Sivanand, though this response could not be included in the survey-story.
Tax is a dirty word to Asians. Why the hell should one's hard earned money be taken away, they reason and many cannot stomach it, because `corrupt governments didn't put their money to good use. Two fifths of Asians said they would cheat on their taxes, given an opportunity while 41 percent of Indians said they would do it all right.
In Kochi, the survey was done on the Marine Drive walkway, a few book stores, colleges and at other public places like bus stops, and had respondents of all age groups and both sexes.
PREMA MANMADHAN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
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