One time when I was in middle school (this happened to be in Spain), I had brought some playing cards (standard 52-card deck) in order to play some solitaire games during recess. I had recently been gifted a book with like a hundred solitaire games, so I was inspired by that.
The French playing cards (your archetypal clubs/diamonds/hearts/spades cards) were actually quite a rarity in Spain, at least back then, and most people only associated them with poker games in movies. The Spanish cards were the most common there.
Obviously some students found my activity particularly curious. Two students in particular had a relatively common misconception that poker was illegal in Spain. Not just playing for money, but any kind of poker playing. (I don't really know how or why that was such a common misconception, but it was.) And they were staring at my solitaire playing discussing among themselves whether it was "poker" or not (even though "playing poker" solo is rather nonsensical, but they had absolutely no idea what poker actually was). Then they decided that it probably was "poker", and they loudly proclaimed that they would tell the teacher about it. The teacher obviously dismissed it as complete nonsense.
This kind of "telling the teacher", snitching, is actually extremely prevalent, in pretty much all cultures. It's so prevalent that the very notion is part of popular culture, and is alluded to in many works of fiction, such as TV series and movies. This kind of "telling the teacher" mentality among grade schoolers is ubiquitous.
I'm not a psychologist, but I can easily imagine why some kids love "snitching" on their fellows so much, and jump to the opportunity whenever it arises, even if they aren't really rewarded in any way for doing so. It allows them to exert power other other kids, even if it's just by proxy. It gives them a sense of satisfaction and schadenfreude to see others get into trouble directly because of their action. I would be willing to bet that if their brains were scanned during that process, it would be found out that it causes some kind of dopamine or other kind of hormone production, as they get the sensation of exerting power onto others and seeing them suffer consequences in some way, even if only by proxy (or, perhaps, because it's by proxy. In other words, they can hide behind the fact that it's not them directly engaging in whatever punishment, and that they are only following the rules.)
For some reason some people never grow out of it.
This coronavirus pandemic has brought forth exactly this kind of "snitching to the authorities" even the most minor transgressions eg. of neighbors, at certain places. There are certain cities in certain countries where there are stricter guidelines or even rules for people to isolate in their homes and avoid going outside, where people are literally calling the police if they see a neighbor take a walk outside. In one particularly infamous example the police was called by someone because a neighbor was sneezing and coughing, even though this neighbor was inside his own home (not eg. outside).
This isn't strange and unusual. This is, in fact, quite common. Many people just love to snitch on their neighbors to the authorities, especially when there are some kind of exceptional rules or laws in place. It's no different from kids "telling the teacher" whenever someone does something even resembling breaking some kind of rule. I'm sure that police officers would have boatloads of stories about precisely this kind of thing. Most of these, of course, are a complete waste of the police's time.
This kind of snitching mentality can have much darker consequences sometimes. For example, East Germany, back when it existed after the second world war, was one of the most Orwellian and oppressive police and surveillance states in the history of humanity. Basically every single citizen was under constant surveillance, and in constant danger of punishment from the authorities if they showed any sign of dissent or trouble.
The scary thing? The vast majority of the surveillance was not done by the authorities, but by other citizens. Indeed, the vast majority of reports to the authorities were just regular citizens snitching on their neighbors.
The French playing cards (your archetypal clubs/diamonds/hearts/spades cards) were actually quite a rarity in Spain, at least back then, and most people only associated them with poker games in movies. The Spanish cards were the most common there.
Obviously some students found my activity particularly curious. Two students in particular had a relatively common misconception that poker was illegal in Spain. Not just playing for money, but any kind of poker playing. (I don't really know how or why that was such a common misconception, but it was.) And they were staring at my solitaire playing discussing among themselves whether it was "poker" or not (even though "playing poker" solo is rather nonsensical, but they had absolutely no idea what poker actually was). Then they decided that it probably was "poker", and they loudly proclaimed that they would tell the teacher about it. The teacher obviously dismissed it as complete nonsense.
This kind of "telling the teacher", snitching, is actually extremely prevalent, in pretty much all cultures. It's so prevalent that the very notion is part of popular culture, and is alluded to in many works of fiction, such as TV series and movies. This kind of "telling the teacher" mentality among grade schoolers is ubiquitous.
I'm not a psychologist, but I can easily imagine why some kids love "snitching" on their fellows so much, and jump to the opportunity whenever it arises, even if they aren't really rewarded in any way for doing so. It allows them to exert power other other kids, even if it's just by proxy. It gives them a sense of satisfaction and schadenfreude to see others get into trouble directly because of their action. I would be willing to bet that if their brains were scanned during that process, it would be found out that it causes some kind of dopamine or other kind of hormone production, as they get the sensation of exerting power onto others and seeing them suffer consequences in some way, even if only by proxy (or, perhaps, because it's by proxy. In other words, they can hide behind the fact that it's not them directly engaging in whatever punishment, and that they are only following the rules.)
For some reason some people never grow out of it.
This coronavirus pandemic has brought forth exactly this kind of "snitching to the authorities" even the most minor transgressions eg. of neighbors, at certain places. There are certain cities in certain countries where there are stricter guidelines or even rules for people to isolate in their homes and avoid going outside, where people are literally calling the police if they see a neighbor take a walk outside. In one particularly infamous example the police was called by someone because a neighbor was sneezing and coughing, even though this neighbor was inside his own home (not eg. outside).
This isn't strange and unusual. This is, in fact, quite common. Many people just love to snitch on their neighbors to the authorities, especially when there are some kind of exceptional rules or laws in place. It's no different from kids "telling the teacher" whenever someone does something even resembling breaking some kind of rule. I'm sure that police officers would have boatloads of stories about precisely this kind of thing. Most of these, of course, are a complete waste of the police's time.
This kind of snitching mentality can have much darker consequences sometimes. For example, East Germany, back when it existed after the second world war, was one of the most Orwellian and oppressive police and surveillance states in the history of humanity. Basically every single citizen was under constant surveillance, and in constant danger of punishment from the authorities if they showed any sign of dissent or trouble.
The scary thing? The vast majority of the surveillance was not done by the authorities, but by other citizens. Indeed, the vast majority of reports to the authorities were just regular citizens snitching on their neighbors.
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