The honor system, a rare exchange of trust
Visitors from the big cities traveling through rural New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and even the country sides of Rhode Island and Massachusetts might be amazed to encounter the honor system in place at roadside farm stands.
Fresh farm picked produce, vine ripened heirloom tomatoes for sale with nothing more than a sign, a tin can with a slot and perhaps a notebook for working out the sums.
The honor system speaks to the belief that people are more likely to be decent than not.
In North Sutton, the farm stand at the Muster Field Farm has a bit more selection than most with cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, pole beans and zuccini but the concept is similar to other farmstand across the region.
The offerings are spread out inside and old pump house and spill out on wooden trays in front. Pumpkins, maple syrup, decorative gourds. The bounty of hard work tilling soil and tending crops in the hot sun all summer.
There is an old vintage scale for weighting, some brown paper bags, a calculator, notebook and pen for scratching out the math. Need to break a twenty? Reach into the old tin box and pull out our change among the dollars and coins left by the previous customers.
No video cameras, no security guards, just you and your conscious.
This is country where people rarely lock their front doors or even their cars. Where people are expected to conduct themselves properly. To respect people’s property, to pick up after themselves and be mindful of other’s people labor.
An honor system or honesty system is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. Something that operates under the rule of the “honor system” is usually something that does not have strictly enforced rules governing its principles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_system
Trust Makes Everyone Feel Good
We all feel better living in a world in which we feel we can trust our fellow man. The seller feels better seeing the till filled at the end of the day, he belief in the good in his customers is confirmed and the customer feels good that he is trusted to make the payments.
So
cial psychologist Michael Cunningham of the University of Louisville who has used “trust games” to investigate what spurs good and bad behavior for the last 25 years. For many people, Cunningham says, trust seems to be at least as strong a motivator as guilt. He thinks he knows why.“When you sell me something I want and trust me to pay you even when you’re not looking, you’ve made my life good in two ways,” Cunningham tells The Salt. “I get something delicious, and I also get a good feeling about myself. Both of those things make me feel good about the world– that I’m in a good place. And I also see you as a contributor to that good — as somebody I want to reward. It’s a
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/06/11/154750001/the-psychology-of-the-honor-system-at-the-farm-standwin win .”