After today’s lecture I decided to watch the rest of “The Real Blind Man Honesty Test” on youtube and am shocked at how some people reacted. I was appalled to see the first man take $50 off the “blind” man, to then look around and run off with the money. I can’t believe someone could take advantage of what was perceived to be such a vulnerable individual. The second lady was more truthful and informed the man that he was infact handing over a $50 note instead of $5, which I thought most people would do. Unfortunately yet another person tried to take advantage of the situation by taking the $50 and giving only $5 change. I can’t imagine doing this to someone who clearly can’t tell the difference and would have no clue that he had been robbed of $50. I found it interesting that both men so far have used the situation to their financial advantage and both women have pointed out the mans error and given him correct change.

The older generation also seem to be considerate and despite not having change take it upon themselves to inform the man that he has $50 and not $5 which could potentially stop the next person taking advantage of him if this were a real life situation. At one point the “blind” man actually asked another man “that was my five note wasn’t it?” He had actually handed over the $50 but the gentleman still replied “yes of course it was.” I can’t believe how many people were willing to take advantage of a vulnerable citizen who was simply looking for some change. I thought by watching till the end of the clip that perhaps someone would give the man change and not take the $5 or $50 note. I was totally shocked when one man took the $50 and swapped it for a lower valued note and had the nerve to pretend that he had returned the $50. I found it interesting that when questioned afterwards he acted as if he didn’t know and that he was sorry. However had this been a real life situation he would’ve walked off profiting from another person’s error.

I feel like before this clip I was maybe slightly naive about the lengths people would go to for easy money. This video seriously made me think about our morals as individuals and as a society and has made me want to look further into what defines our morals and why some people don’t seem to develop them. I genuinely believe that the people in this clip would be nice people and I don’t think that in their daily lives would cause any harm to anyone. However on this day they took advantage of a situation and I hope that they learned their lesson. If I was in this situation I know for a fact I would never take $50 and pretend like it was a $5, no matter how poor my own financial situation was. This situation is worsened by the fact these people are stealing money off who they believe is a blind man.

I am left wondering, do these people have poor morals? Was this just a one off? And what would my friends do if in the same situation?