The experiment set to find which UK cities were the most honest (and the least).

In a bold social experiment, popular YouTube star WillNE wanted to find out which UK cities are the most and least honest.

How did he do it?

By simply posting his bank details on billboards in 10 cities across the UK, putting London, Bristol, Cardiff, Southampton, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, and Glasgow all up against each other.

Each city had its own bank account pre-loaded with £1,000. The goal was to see which city would dip into the funds first, testing the integrity of the people who live there.

The project involved other tests such as leaving an unattended and unlocked bicycle to see how long it would take to be stolen, and seeing if people would return a lost wallet – with or without the money.

YouTube/WillNE

The experiments focused on challenging the stereotypes of the North-South parts of the UK.

‘For those outside of the UK there is a huge divide that separates the British Isles and that is the North versus the South,’ said WillNE, real name, William Jonathan Lenney.

‘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.’

He announced: ‘We’re out to prove once and for all which one of them’s better.’

The result of the bike experiment didn’t take long as the one in London was stolen after just six minutes.

Soon after, bank accounts across the country were clearly being accessed. The first notable transaction was an amusing 9p purchase on OnlyFans from London.

This was quickly overshadowed by bigger spending from other cities, with someone from Birmingham spending £199 on EasyJet, and one passerby in London used the details to splash £400 on Roblox.

Conor Samuel/Unsplash

The city of Newcastle made an attempt to spend a whopping total of £50,000.

Interestingly, Leeds and Glasgow almost exclusively splurged their cash on ASOS and the PlayStation Store.

Unexpectedly, three cities used the bank details to make donations to charity – leading WillNE to award additional points to Cardiff, Leeds, and Manchester for their selfless acts.

In regards to the wallet experiment, inspired by American YouTuber Mark Rober, WillNE He filled wallets with fake IDs, a small amount of cash, and sentimental items like baby scans and dropped one in each city to see how many would be returned.

Pawel Czerwinski/Unsplash

Out of the 100 wallets dropped across the UK, 75 were returned, with 71 still containing money. Most wallets were picked up within five minutes, suggesting that people in the UK are quick to do a good deed.

‘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.

So how was the final score of the North-South divide settled?

The results of the experiment showed that Cardiff was the most honest city, while London appeared to be the least honest.

Although both cities are in the South, according to WillNE’s experiment, the overall results hinted that the North of the UK might possess a higher degree of honesty than the South.

WillNE concluded: ‘This also means on average the North of the UK is far superior to the South – thank you very much for watching, goodbye.’