It seems the things YouTubers are doing are getting more audacious by the day.
In what was a pretty daring but arguably risky social experiment, one renowned YouTube star, who goes by the name of WillNE, tried to find out which cities in the UK are the most and least honest.
But just how did he do that?
By placing his bank details on billboards in 10 cities across the UK - a different one in the cities of London, Bristol, Cardiff, Southampton, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow.
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Each account was pre-loaded with £1,000. The goal? To find out which city would first dip into the funds, effectively challenging the integrity of the people who live there.
The project forms part of a broader series of experiments devised by WillNE (real name William Jonathan Lenney), but the central theme revolves around the debate contrasting the North and South of the UK.
“The reason why we're doing all of this is to settle an age-old debate,” he says in a video.
“For those outside of the UK there is a huge divide that separates the British Isles and that is the North versus the South.
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"You see the North is considered the poorer of the two but generally more friendly whereas the South is seen as richer but rude and unwelcoming.”
By testing the honesty and integrity of the citizens in these different regions, WillNE, who has 5 million YouTube subscribers, aimed to cast light on the cultural divide and perhaps challenge some long-standing stereotypes.
“We're out to prove once and for all which one of them's better,” he added.
In conjunction with the billboard experiment, WillNE also placed unattended and unlocked bicycles in each city, serving as what he claims is another barometer of honesty.
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The bicycles were intended to see how long they would remain untouched before being stolen.
The experiment started on a telling note, with the bike in London being stolen after just six minutes.
As the experiment progressed, it became evident that the bank accounts were also being accessed. The first notable transaction was an amusing 9p purchase on OnlyFans from London.
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This was soon overshadowed by more significant splurges from other cities, with someone from Birmingham spending £199 on EasyJet, and then a passerby in London using the details to splash £400 on Roblox.
However, the social experiment took an unexpected turn when some cities used the bank details to make donations to charity. This unexpected act of kindness led WillNE to award additional points to Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester in recognition of their selfless acts.
Parallel to the financial experiment, WillNE drew inspiration from American YouTuber Mark Rober, who conducted a wallet-dropping test to uncover people’s honesty.
WillNE filled wallets with fake IDs, a small amount of cash and sentimental items such as baby scans and family photos and dropped one in each city to see how many would be returned.
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The results were, let’s say, eye-opening. Out of the 100 wallets dropped across the UK, 75 were returned and 71 still had money in them. The majority of wallets were also picked up within five minutes of being dropped, suggesting that people in the UK are quick to do a good deed.
But how did these results count towards the final North-South divide?
“The cities who returned the least wallets were Southampton, London and Birmingham, where people returned six each and received six honesty points to their tally,” explained WillNE.
“They were then swiftly followed by Manchester and Glasgow with seven and next up with eight wallets returned each was Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle.”
The results of the experiment showed that Cardiff was the most honest city, while London appears to be the least honest.
While both cities are considered southern, the overall results hinted that the northern part of the UK might, on average, possess a higher degree of honesty than the southern part, according to WillNE's experiement.
WillNE backed up this sentiment when he ended his YouTube video stating: “This also means on average the North of the UK is far superior to the South - thank you very much for watching, goodbye.”