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The Psychology of Package Thieves

2018-12-21 · letter vlog · Hank, Robert Tyminski · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, guest or collab

Struck that the thieves in Mark Rober's glitter-bomb video did not fit his picture of thieves, Hank hears package thieves (voiced by actors), psychologist Robert Tyminski and a Dan Ariely experiment, and concludes that theft is rarely about need and is far more complicated than he wanted.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Mark Rober's glitter-bomb package video; the thieves are not what Hank expected

  • ★★ Hank assumes John has seen Mark Rober's amazing new video, in which Rober builds a bait package that explodes glitter on people who steal it; its engineering is very good. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank has watched the video five times not for the glitter or the fart sprayer but because the thieves don't look or act as he thought they would. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Hank's changed view; package thieves' own accounts, voiced by actors

  • ★★★ Hank doesn't know what he expected thieves to look like, perhaps because he had dehumanized what a thief was in his head. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Challenging his expectation immediately changed how Hank thought about thieves: from some anger and pity to more curiosity, along with continued anger. — 00:00:29
  • ★ Hank mocks thieves who got offended that their theft ended in a prank. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank researched the topic, including talking to package thieves, and presents their words in the voices of actors. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ a guest: One thief stole because all their friends were doing it and they didn't have many friends or know how to make new ones. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ a guest: One thief says there is some satisfaction in just getting away with something. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ a guest: One thief had a debatable need to steal during active addiction, and could sell or trade what was stolen. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ a guest: One thief says a package could hold a USB cable or an iPhone; it is like anything addictive, and better than their other addictions. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ a guest: One thief never really thought about consequences, knowing that being young, charming, white and with a clean record they wouldn't be too bad. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ a guest: One thief's group was just having fun until they realised a package was almost certainly a toy for a child to open on Christmas morning; then it stopped being fun. (hedged) — 00:01:18 · Christmas

00:01:47 — Understanding without excusing; psychologist Robert Tyminski on why people steal and steal together

  • ★★★ Hank says these perspectives helped him understand how theft happens without the need for theft: not excusing it, but understanding it better. — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Feeling out of his depth, Hank called psychologist Dr. Robert Tyminski, author of The Psychology of Theft and Loss. — 00:01:47
  • ★★★ Robert Tyminski: Tyminski says most theft is not because people need it; the opportunistic category driven by social and economic deprivation is pretty small. — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Robert Tyminski: Tyminski says thieves felt strength in getting away with it, in fooling and duping people, and in the rush, as shoplifters do too. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Hank found it interesting that theft was often not a solitary activity. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Robert Tyminski: Tyminski says stealing together is a defense against guilt: people prone to guilt get to divide it and feel it less. — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ Hank's main takeaway is that theft, like all sociological enterprise, is super complicated. — 00:02:20

00:02:49 — Theft is complicated: Dan Ariely's cheating experiment and Hank's conclusion

  • ★★★ Hank describes a Dan Ariely experiment: people were paid per correct math answer, and an actor stood up 30 seconds in, claimed all answers right, took the money and left. — 00:02:49
  • ★★★ In Ariely's experiment, cheating rose when the cheater wore a sweater from the students' own university and fell when the cheater wore a rival university's. — 00:03:18
  • ★★ Hank concludes, as with Mark Rober's video, that theft is a lot more complicated than he wanted it to be. — 00:03:18

00:03:44 — Credits and no John video on Christmas Tuesday

  • ★★ Hank reminds viewers that John won't have a video next Tuesday (25 December 2018) because that day is Christmas. — 00:03:44 · John Green, Christmas

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says dehumanizing thieves is easy because they dehumanized us first. — video description
  • ★ The description links Hank's full conversation with Dr. Tyminski. — video description
  • ★★★ The description passes on Mark Rober's explanation that two of the thefts in his video were staged: a volunteer was offered money for each recovered package, and in those two cases the 'thieves' were the volunteer's acquaintances. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: causes of crime · dehumanization · Mark Rober's glitter bait package video

Also: Christmas · Dan Ariely · guilt · in-group favoritism · iPhone · Mark Rober · Robert Tyminski · social privilege

Only in the description or credits: Andrew Huang · The Psychology of Theft and Loss

Also centred on causes of crime: I Kind of Hate Batman

Also centred on dehumanization: An Army of Mindless Drones · What Does It Mean to Be Human? · Aida and Majeeda: Thoughts from the Azraq Refugee Camp · Zaatari: Thoughts from a Refugee Camp · Uncertain and Afraid · Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways)

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