Subject: Ethics, Cash Money,
Group Mentality
By Victor Antonio
The other day while
traveling on the road and stuck in a Bronx, New York hotel (that’s a
whole other story) I was flicking through the television channels to see
what was on. As I flicked it became apparent that there wasn’t much for
brain food on the menu. I did come across one of those reality programs
which seemed intriguing. No! Not one of those cheesy “look how X
family lives” shows. This one was different…and I apologize for not
being able to recall the name.
Apparently this
reality show was about studying people’s behavior in public given a
unique situation. In this case, the unique situation was a money tree
situated on a public street corner.
Here’s how it was
set-up:
1)
The had a 6 feet tall fake tree in a pot
2)
They clipped many $1 dollar bills to the leaves
3)
At the bottom of the tree, and on top of the pot they put a sign
indicating that it was “ART” (I couldn’t make out the sign)
4)
They found a busy corner to place the tree
5)
Then they hid inside a van across the street with a camera point
at the corner where the tree stood.
6)
The objective: Study human behavior
The experiment was
now underway. People past buy the tree occasionally glancing at it but
not stopping. Some stopped, read the sign and then moved on. It seemed
as though people were going to leave the tree alone.
Then, all of a
sudden, a young lady stops and becomes very interested in the tree. It
went from a casual glance to the investigative mode. You could tell she
was in disbelief that someone would put a tree with money and leave it
on a corner. She then began to look around as if to say, “Does anyone
else see this money tree?” And, as she began to solicit looks from
others passing by, others began to stop.
The young lady,
feeling a bit braver, then ‘plucked’ a dollar and again, looked around
as if to say, “Is this for real? Who would be this stupid to leave this
tree unguarded?” As she held the plucked dollar in her hand, people
passing by or who were now curious took a more serious interest in the
tree.
The young lady
plucked another dollar as now they were more people gathered around the
tree. Then out of nowhere, another person reached in to pluck a
dollar. Within one minutes the tree had been plucked clean and more
people were now gathering. Some were even digging into the base of the
tree to make sure there weren’t any dollars left.
Finally, a tall man
who was passing buy and became curious began telling the people taking
the money that it was wrong. But it was too late, the tree stood bare
as the art world was shocked (sorry,…I went for the drama).
The people
conducting the experiment in the van then jumped out, ran across the
street where the tree stood and asked the lady who had first plucked the
bill why she did it. Her answer was incoherent but it added up to,
“Hey, it was there…why not.”
I was fascinated by
this experiment from a few viewpoints.
First, I noticed
that human dynamics change when the one person stopped and initiated the
action (plucking the dollar).
Second, I also
noticed that the first person was afraid to act alone after plucking the
first dollar and began to look around for conspirators. In other words,
she didn’t want to be the only one taking the money.
Lastly, there
seemed to be a ‘critical point’ (both in time and number of people)
where the actions of one turned into an all out grab-the-money feeding
frenzy.
I began to reflect
on how people can be influenced by the actions, maybe not of one person,
but by a group of people. Anyone plucking the money had to know
objectively that taking it was wrong. Yet, because everyone else was
doing it, it seemed O.K. It was as though people began to suspend
accountability and ethics so long as everyone else was doing it.
This experiment
scared me because I was watching people, who seemed to be normal,
degenerate into inexplicable actions within a couple of minutes. Are
our ethics so weak, our morality so fragile that it could be bought for
a few dollar bills?
My only ray of hope
for humanity came when I saw the man towards the end of the feeding
frenzy begin to scold the people surrounding the tree saying, “Stop!
That’s wrong!” What he said seemed to have some type of sobering affect
on the people. I’m sure that later, when they watched themselves on
television, they had to be horrified by their behavior. And, they
better hope their friends didn’t see the show because there was no
‘blurring out’ of the faces on this reality show.
Whether in our
personal lives or in business, going along with what everyone else is
doing is wrong…it’s a herd mentality. How many times have we found
ourselves in awkward situations because we followed the crowd? Some of
us wind up doing things we wouldn’t do otherwise, or later regret. We
got caught up or lost in the moment.
The recent
corporate scandals that have rocked our confidence in businesses and the
stock market was brought about by greed, but more specifically, by
people who just went along because they were either told it was alright
or didn’t have the courage to say, “No, that’s wrong.”
It only takes one
time, one moment to alter the course of our life. Many people are
sitting behind bars today or living a quiet life of desperation because
of one moment where there was a lapse in judgment.
Malcolm X was once
asked by a reporter if there should be more laws drafted to ensure
equality. His response went along this line, “There are already enough
laws on the books. The problem is you can’t legislate morality.”
I love that answer. We are responsible for legislating our own morality
and ethics. We know the difference between right and wrong. It takes
courage, not more laws, to say, “No, that’s wrong.”
To the tall man in
the experiment, I salute you. Ethics is not what you do when everyone
is watching, but how you behave when there’s no one watching.
Victor Antonio
Please share this article with a friend who may need a word of inspiration.
 Copyright © 2006 by
Victor Antonio All rights reserved. This article MAY
be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, as long as the author’s name, website and email
address are included as part of the article’s body. All inquiries,
including information on electronic licensing, should be directed to Victor Antonio.
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