Mao Jianguo (

There has been a growing outcry over the alleged decay of social ethics over the years. It seems that everything is going wrong. The result of the coin test, somehow, has filled some with new hope for a better life and the goodness in human nature.

Nonetheless, there are still some doubts over the way the experiment was conducted. What might have happened if the test was not carried out in busy parts of the cities, and if it was not 1-yuan coins but 100-yuan notes? There are many such tests taking place every day in real life, but many fail either way.

Society is complex, and so is human nature. No moral experiment is capable of accurately portraying the whole of society. This time, the coin test has shown us the positive side of human nature, and that’s something to celebrate. However, if the results were negative, it still would not be a reason for us to feel disappointed. We are not supposed to cry or laugh at the results of such tests. What we need is to develop the ability to make objective judgments on every