Are trick-or-treaters honest?

 I wish I had found this article over the weekend!  My wife and I were trying to decide whether we would offer Halloween candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters this year.  She suggested that we put out a bowl of candy with a sign that said, "Be nice - take just one!" and not make the trick-or-treaters come to the door.  I thought that would be okay, but my counter went something like, "Do you really think they will take just one?"

I assumed that we would find an empty bowl after the first group of trick-or-treaters.  I should have read the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal!  The columnist and psychological guru, Dan Ariely was asked this very question and referenced a study that was performed in the 1970's.  

The study was published by Edward Diener and colleagues in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1976.  It's kind of a sneaky study performed in a real-world environment.  Basically, "concealed raters" (think secret shoppers) monitored over 1,300 trick-or-treating children on Halloween.  The study was conducted in only 27 homes - trick-or-treaters came to the home to find a bowl of candy bars and a bowl of pennies and nickels (devious!).  The women answering the door would tell the children to take ONE candy bar (never mentioning the bowl of money) and would then leave the kids alone.  There were a few experimental conditions to manipulate the situation even further.  Some of the children were asked who they were, where they lived, etc (non-anonymous condition), whereas others remained anonymous (anonymous condition).  Some of the children came to the bowls alone, while others came in groups.  

The study investigators reported that 416 out of the 1,300 children took either more candy (65%), money (14%), or both (20%)!  As anticipated, the percentage of children committing a transgression (stealing candy, money, or both) was significantly lower when a parent was present (But still not zero!  Come on parents!).  Children in groups or who remained anonymous were also less likely to commit a transgression.  So, as it turns out, when trick-or-treaters are given the opportunity to take extra candy, they will do so!

I know - I am shocked as you are right now.  But here's the surprise at the end of the blog post.  The trick-or-treaters coming to the Wheeler household actually didn't take extra candy!  Now, granted, we only had a few trick-or-treaters this year, but still.  Right?  Maybe there's hope for the future!!