Return for refund and get 5 cents

Ever wonder why you get 5cents for returning a bottle for recylcing?

Why is it not more? why do they give you any money at all? Many places charge a 10c bottle deposit for recycling when you buy the bottle, so in reality, you are just getting balk half of your own money. So why not just give them the 5c up front and eliminate the refund?

The truth is, the whole thing is a psychological "experiment" being played on you. It is an attempt to produce a state in your mind known as "cognitive dissonance"

In a classic experiment students are asked to perform tedious and pointless tasks tasks. For example turning pegs quarter-turns, putting spools onto a tray, emptying the tray, refilling it with spools, and so on. After a long period of doing this, the students were told the experiment was over and they could leave.

However, the experimenter then asked the subject for a small favor. He asked the participant to try to persuade another subject (a planted person) that the dull were actually interesting and engaging. Some participants were paid $20 for the favor, another group was paid $1, and a control group was not requested at all to perform the favor.

As the subject leaves, he/she is asked to fill out a survey about how much he/she enjoyed the tasks being preformed. Those in the $1 group rated the tasks more positively than those in the $20 group and control group.

So let's think about this for a minute, you are given a boring task, you know it wasn't exciting, and you are asked to convince someone else that it is exciting, when clearly it is not.

So basically you are either

a) Given no money and asked to lie to another person
b) Given $1 to lie to another person
c) Given $20 to lie to another person

Depending upon your personal ethics, it might not be a big deal for you to tell a lie for $20. It's a small lie, and hey you're getting $20 so what the heck. So when you are later asked to tell how you "Really feel" about the task, you can be honest and say "It was very boning", even though you just told some other guy it was really exciting

In situation a) you might not lie at all, or your lie might not sound very convincing, it is not in your best interest to lie, what's the point?. When later you are surveyed, you will probably give an honest opinion.

Situation b) is where things really get interesting. For most people $1 is probably not enough justification to tell a lie, but you did tell a lie, and you know you lied to the other guy and told him the task was exciting. So you mind races to find further justification for your lie. Internally, you end up convincing yourself, "Well the tasks couldn't have been ALL that boring, yeah, it was a little exciting wasn't it?" You trick yourself, you tell yourself this mind numbingly boring task wasn't really all that bad, and this is what you tell the researcher when he surveys you later to ask.

Bottle refunds (and many other things) work on the exact same principle. A reward is offered, but it is not too much. You have to search yourself for additional justification for the action, and not just the reward itself. So you convince yourself, we'll I'm also recycling to help the environment, because 5cents isn't enough justification by itself.

If everyone got back let's say $5 for every bottle, in the short term I'm sure EVERYONE would recycle, but what happens when the money runs out?, all the recycling stops, immediately, no one is recycling to help the environment, they are doing it for the money.

And this is the experiment being played on people everyday. Can you think about other examples of where this occurs? To what extent might this be used in your business? in employer/employee relationships perhaps?..Think about it !