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Free Money

When I saw Google yesterday offering a free 10 dollars for the taking, it reminded me of an experiment on trust by my wacky friend Prof. Dan Ariely. He did an experiment where he set up a table in a public space with a bowl containing cash and a sign that said, “Free Money.” Dan found that with a pile of one-dollar bills, 10% of the passerbys would stop and take the cash; with fifty-dollar bills, only 22% took him up on his offer. His point was that “If someone is offering me something free, there must be a trick to it.”

We can be cynical in life, and assume that there really is no thing as a totally “free lunch.” To complete mis-trust everything around you can probably lead to a lonely state of being. Well, in another browser window there I am about to “Sign up to earn [my] $10 bonus.” Free money is only a click away.

8/trust   Jan 18, '07

5 Responses to “Free Money”

1. 
   
   richard  January 19, 2007

   After watching GMA this morning I saw that Consumer Reports has retracted their report on car seats. As a trusted entity how does admitting your mistakes increase or decrease trust?

   I was also curious as to why their is not a law of simplicity about money? Such as, money - simplicity is never achieved by more of it. Kind of like the saying wars are not won by committee.

2. 
   
   Bob H.  January 19, 2007

   However, Google picked the word ‘earn’, not ‘free’ for the $10 give away.

3. 
   
   maeda  January 20, 2007

   You may know of the landmark case when Tylenol in the 1980’s recognized an enormous safety situation with tainted Tylenol and implemented a massive recall. It’s often pointed to as when “corporate honesty is the best policy.” As for your 11th Law of Money, I think your observation is correct in most cases, however I have had the fortune of seeing committees that do result in excellence when taking all opinions into consideration and where the leader does synthesize an opinion greater than his/her own. Maybe we need a Law of Leadership in addition to Money.

   Bob–Thanks for pointing out the earn vs. free distinction. Earning does seem to carry more honor than free. John

4. 
   
   Roy Dahl  January 23, 2007

   Pity it does not function in Norway.

5. 
   
   Guy Papstein  February 9, 2007

   Guys,
   you have to try this:

   http://www.gooogIe.co.uk/?gid=60083&hl=en&meta=o&q=Make%20it%20simple!

   and go create your own ones then…
   Guy

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