Can Moving Country Make You More Honest?
I recently read about a fascinating study in which researchers “lost” more than 17,000 wallets in 40 countries to see how many would be returned. The results suggested that some countries had much higher rates of returning lost wallets than others. It made for an eye-catching headline about the world’s most honest and dishonest nations.
As someone who was born in Eastern Europe and has lived in England for many years, I found myself asking a different question.
If you move to another country, does your own honesty change?
My country of origin sits somewhere lower down these kinds of rankings, though thankfully not among the very bottom. The UK tends to rank higher. If I were faced with one of the situations in these studies today, would I behave differently than I might have years ago?
My instinct is yes.
But then I immediately wonder why.
Have I become more honest because I’ve spent years living in a society where certain behaviours are more strongly expected? Have I gradually absorbed the social norms around me because that’s simply what humans do? Or were those values always part of me, waiting to become more visible in an environment where honesty is more consistently rewarded?
Perhaps it isn’t about becoming a different person at all.
When we move countries, we learn much more than a new language or how to navigate unfamiliar systems. We quietly learn what people around us consider normal. We notice whether strangers queue patiently, whether neighbours return lost parcels, whether people trust one another, and whether honesty is expected rather than exceptional.
These observations shape us, often without us realising.
Of course, no country has a monopoly on honesty. Every nation has generous people, selfish people, rule followers and rule breakers. Even the researchers themselves pointed out that honesty depends on how it is measured. Someone who returns a lost wallet might still cheat on their taxes, while someone else might never steal but tell the occasional lie to spare another person’s feelings.
Human behaviour is far more complicated than any league table.
What struck me most about the research wasn’t which country came first or last. It was the suggestion that most people are actually more honest than we expect. We often assume others will act in their own self-interest, yet many choose not to, even when no one is watching.
I like to think that living in England has strengthened parts of my own character. Not because Britain has made me a better person, but because spending years in a culture where trust and civic responsibility are often visible has reinforced values I already admired.
Perhaps honesty is a little like language. We arrive with one version of it, shaped by our upbringing, our family and our culture. Then life adds new words, new expressions and new ways of thinking. We don’t lose our original language; it simply evolves.
Maybe our moral values evolve in much the same way.