If you lose your wallet, how often do you think someone will be kind enough to return it to you, with cash and credit cards? Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother  with the trip to the post office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard Wiseman, there's one thing that'll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet: a photograph of a cute baby. In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered  around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the addresses listed on the drivers' licenses inside--but more than that, they wanted to find out what would make a person more likely to help out a stranger. To finish this, they included personal things in most of the wallets: some included a photo of a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts  showing that the wallet's owner had recently donated to a charity . Some contained no personal details. As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any heart: only one in ten of the strangers who _ such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner. The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion  for the young that's been passed down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective ," he told theTimes. To ensure our species' survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won't feel compassion only for our own babies, but for any that we see--hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to the baby's parent. On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever lost, you're more likely to get it back. "If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being returned if lost, gain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly displayed," said Dr. Wiseman. Why did people return a wallet with a photograph of a cute baby in it?
Because the wallet was not attractive enough to keep. Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them. Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children.