Halloween and Behavioral Economics

It has now been a few weeks since Halloween was celebrated. Best known for trick-or-treating by children, the day is becoming a big sensation in the US. So  big that Americans spent over $10 billion for this one day event in 2020. For a few years now my wife has been wanting to end our providing treats on this day, but I have continued the task. After the experience this year, I may re-think the whole situation. Although, at present, I am not willing to fully cancel. I realized this year that I am doing an experiment in behavioral economics.  I had not thought of it this way last year.  Halloween 2021 coincided with a book I was reading at the time, The Why Axis. Thus, I will have two years of running a behavioral economics experiment, albeit in slightly different ways over the past two years.

Up until 2020 we did the standard task, kids come to the door, say the magic words and we would put some candy in their respective container. Say something about the costumes, as hand out the candy.  Close door, go back to your task and wait for the next group. Last year (2020), with COVID, I placed candy bars in pairs on a flat board, and had a sign asking persons to grab a pair. I had three types of candy bars, and two or three sets of each for the five different combinations available. In this manner, we were all social distanced, and children (or their parents) did not have to worry about touching candy by grabbing out of one container, and touch a candy wrapper that some other child touched with their dirty fingers. There of course was the added benefit of not having to open the door every time the doorbell rang. This worked quite well, and I was impressed with how compliant the children turned out to be. I had a great deal of candy left over, but thought, perhaps fewer were trick-or-treating, given the pandemic.  I also know that our neighborhood, and the one adjoining has a few, but not as many children as say 25 years past, and the number of trick-or-treaters is way down from 25 years ago. Two years ago, I think we had eight trick-or-treaters.

This year I decided to do something similar, with one small change from 2020.  I placed all the available candy in a shoe box and had a sign, similar to 2020, wishing them a Happy Halloween, and asking them to help themselves to a couple pieces of candy.  While I did not keep watch, I checked several times on how things looked over the treat hours. I did see one mom pop up and grab some candy, but no big deal. Moms need their candy, too.

Sign used on Halloween, 2021

However, about 7:00 pm my wife thought I should bring the candy in and shut off the light. I decided to wait a while, as treat hours went to 8 pm.  About 7:15 I was making my way to the kitchen, and I looked out to see if there was any activity and saw a person reach in and grab candy. I thought I would look to see how many people there were, to check on supply when they were gone. To my amazement she reached in again and again and again. Yes, four or more times grabbing candy. As she departed, I opened the door, and with her back to me, as she was walking off the step, I nicely said something like: "Do you really need that much candy?" She did not turn to look at me, and so I repeated myself.  She then turned and looked at me and did not make a response for short while, and then asked if she should return it.  I said no, keep it.  If, I had been thinking better, I should have said, "What do you think you should do?" At that point she and her partner started to leave and I look in the box and see only a few pieces of candy left.  I checked it not much earlier, and my wife just a few minutes before, and there was a good amount of candy.  I did not hear any one else approach in the few short minutes between the time checked by my wife and when she arrived, so I doubt there were any others who grabbed some candy between those two time periods.  I can say with high level of confidence that she took a great deal of candy, perhaps 20 pieces or more. I used 'couple" to allow some leeway for a child who may accidentally have grabbed, say, three.  But, four hand fulls went well beyond the intent of the clearly posted candy declaration.

I have to say, I was warned about this.  My wife had said that someone was going to just grab and run with a good amount of the candy.  I looked to last year when that did not occur.  I also looked to what I had read in The Why Axis. The book, consistent with what I previously heard from Chef Heide, that if a specific price is not identified for an entree on a restaurant menu, that, overall, most people would pay more than what the menu would have identified for the price. I was extremely confident, setting the candy out, that someone would not grab most of the candy.

After the grab occurred, my spouse, who I think took some schadenfreude in my discredited position, posted on Facebook about our candy being stolen.  We found out we were not the only ones. People had candy and even containers stolen. I used a shoe box to avoid having a container stolen, you have to be desperate to steal a shoe box. What we found amazing is the people, mainly women, who justified the action of this girl. Such things as, the poor kids did not have trick-or-treating last year (false), or the girl said the sign said take what you want (also false), and that the sixth grade girl does volunteer work. They did not say where she did volunteer work, perhaps it was at the Dane County Jail.  And, does volunteering really excuse her action that night? What really irked me were the other lies and misrepresentations.  She told one of the women who defended her, that I yelled (I did not, I calmly asked) and she said after our encounter, I took the sign and candy in the house in a huff.  Yeah, they used that word, huff. She did not say I allowed her to keep the candy. Well, but for a few pieces in the box we were out of candy, so how does it look if a group of four comes up and there are only three pieces of candy?  Would I regret the piece or two I ate while checking on the candy? The Facebook poster then said, I was spying on them, and wondered why I would do that and not just hand the candy out, or sit on the bench outside. That too is false, I was going to the kitchen, and porch side light is visible down the short hall on my way to the kitchen. As most people who know me can attest, I make a lot of trips to the kitchen for food during the day and night. I was not spying, but simply looked at the door sidelight while walking to the kitchen. The sign was standing up on a bench, with the box to the right side of the sign, and this was all located under the porch light, right next to the  door sidelight (window). The porch light made it quite easy to see her hand go into the candy box, not just once, but three more times. She made at least four trips into the candy box. Of course, one poster suggested, that she was grateful that there was not any vandalism. So, apparently stealing is OK, as long as they did not vandalize. I was not going to sit outside in the cold, and anyway, my wife would have complained about all the trips I would be making into the house to keep my stomach satisfied. "You are letting the heat out coming in and out so much."  

The Why Axis book cover

Showing how bright kids are, this girl took a selfie of her taking the bowl and candy of some other homeowner, and posting it on Instagram. That is how people easily identified the culprit. She was a known FF (frequent flyer to the nurse office) at the elementary school. Stealing of bowls occurred at multiple homes.  Again, why I used a shoe box--that part I thought of.  I would be having braces on my legs right now if I put the candy out in one of my wife's Longaberger baskets, and the basket was stolen. 

The question I have for the women who defended her, is what about the trick-or-treaters that may have been coming after her, and did not get any candy from a house because she took it all?  How would those children feel about now having one less house dispensing candy? I would not be able to pull a Frank Barone because we don't have any condoms in the house. I guess I could have changed my chalkboard sign and written, "Sorry, all of  the candy is gone thanks to a girl dressed in white with purple hair." 

One of the authors of The Why Axis, is from my hometown, and is a professor at the University of Chicago. I grew up on the same street as his grandfather lived. The book goes through several different behavioral economic experiments he and his coauthor accomplished.  So, what does my two years of experimentation show?  It only takes one bad actor to disrupt something.  I guess, like the rotten apple in a barrel, or the bad egg in a crate. I could care less about her having volunteered, or her purple hair, or whatever excuse was used. It was bad behavior and in a civilized society it disrupted the cultural norm, to which so many other adhered, regarding Halloween candy. I am not sure what her hidden motive might have been.

What does that say about behavioral economics?  I guess that some will take things in their own hand when it is to their benefit, regardless of common courtesy and an identified set of rules. It also shows me that you probably need to do more than one experiment.  I wonder if she had shown up last year what she would have done. As for next year and Halloween candy distribution, after writing this, I may wish to repeat the experiment.