At the gym, there’s a stand with small compartments at the entrance into the the weights and equipment room.
Everybody drops their stuff there before going on to exercise. Handbags, wallets, car keys. There are no locks because they aren’t necessary.
Respect for property doesn’t exist in isolation. Gym visitors are polite and respectful with each other. Nobody stares, nobody comments at other people’s performance. People take turns and wipe down equipment after each use. Nobody talks on the phone or listens to music without headphones. Women are completely safe from grabbing or lewd comments.
This is American culture. This is not the human default. It’s the opposite of human default. A very large number of cultural operations carried out across the span of many generations brought about this result.
Unfortunately, this culture comes with a built-in weak point where it’s likely to break down. This weak point is an effect of precisely the trust and the kindness that I described above. People leave their wallets out in the open because they assume everybody is equally honest and kind. They extend this assumptions to the entirety of humanity and backwards in history, assuming it’s the human default.
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