Some 95% of people on 60 locations in 50 states, had a choice to be honest or not, paid their dollar at an honor-system street rack for Honest Tea 2014.
That’s up from 92% last year in the same Honest Tea experiment in the U.S., stated the National Honesty Index.
Honest Tea is yet to release the survey results, but USA TODAY had a first look. The results come at a time when honesty has become underrated.
Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman says:
“Considering how divisive the national dialogue is, you’d think we were all a bunch of crooks. But Americans are a lot more honest than we give ourselves credit for.”
Winners are participants in Honolulu who were 100% honest for the second year in a row.
Washington improved its results, with its honesty quotient up to 96% vs. last year’s bottom rating of 80%.
Taking D.C.’s place at the bottom of the 2014 National Honesty Index, Providence, R.I, with one in five residents dishonoring the honor system – to go for a free drink.
For the first time, the experiment also had an online component, which increased the total number of participants to 28,000. Through a Facebook app, participants got a free coupon for a bottle of Honest Tea. In return, they were asked to post one of three non-commercial, inspirational quotes on their Facebook walls. The ‘honesty’ rate for that was 95%.
