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Effect on Restaurant Tipping of a Helpful Message Written on the Back of Customers' Checks
Abstract
Research has shown that servers can increase their tip percentages by writing “Thank you” or by drawing a happy face on the backs of customers' checks. In the current study, a third approach of this type was tested. An experiment was conducted in which a female server either did or did not write a helpful message about an upcoming dinner special on the backs of checks before delivering them to customers. It was predicted that adding the helpful message would increase tip percentages because of reciprocity, in which customers would tend to respond to the server's “tip” with an increased tip of their own. Results were consistent with this prediction: Mean tip percentages increased from about 17% to 20%.
... Among these methods is the personalization of the bill (invoice). There are findings that among these personalization methods, drawing a smiling face or writing a thank you note (Kinard & Kinard, 2013;Rind & Bordia, 1996;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999) on the bill might influence the billing behavior in a positive or negative manner. This case evokes that the tip amount left might differ depending on the personalization of invoice; and thus, the following hypothesis can be written. ...
... Attitudes of employees towards customers can influence the amount of tips. It is known that the way of communication with customers (Garrity & Degelman, 1990;Seiter & Weger, 2013), particularly personalized mode of communication -a thank you note on the bill or a smiling face- (Kinard & Kinard, 2013;Rind & Bordia, 1996;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999) can influence the tipping behavior. Considering that each generation was brought up in different economic conditions and that their behaviors can differ accordingly (Aka, 2017;Chen, 2010), the amounts of tips left by the generations might differ based on the personalization of the bill; hereupon, the following hypothesis can be written. ...
... The motive behind this significant difference was determined to be the bill type with a 'thank you' note (H1 Accepted). In some of the previous studies in the literature, it was concluded that the 'thank you' note on the bill increased the tip amount (Kinard & Kinard, 2013;Rind & Bordia, 1996;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). ...
Tip is the monetary amount that consumers voluntarily leave for the quality of the service they get. Whether a tip is left or not, and the amount of the tip left may result from different demographic and characteristic features of consumers. This study was conducted to determine the amount of tip left by the generations based on the personalized bills. Based on three different personalized bill types for a dinner for two people at a mid-quality restaurant, it was attempted to determine whether the costumers left tips or not, and if they did, how much was the amount. The data were gathered based on the quota sampling method in January and February 2018. The total number of the participants – selected from each gender and generation except for the Z generation in equal numbers - reached 414. The data were evaluated by descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, one and two-way ANOVA. The findings indicated that the amounts of tips were significantly different depending on the generations and the personalized bills.
... In a next step, we focused on participants' behavioral intentions of returning a favor under MS ( Schindler et al., 2013, Study 1). As research has indicated that a favor of a server increases tip percentages (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), after MS induction and a short delay, we used a fictitious scenario in which participants read that while going out for food in a restaurant, they received a favor from a server; namely, an espresso on the house. In the control condition, the server did not provide an espresso, and thus this situation did not call for reciprocating a favor. ...
... Murstein, B. I., Cerreto, M., & MacDonald, M. G. (1977). A theory and investigation of the Rind, B., & Strohmetz, D. (1999). Effect on restaurant tipping of a helpful message written on the back of customer's checks. ...
... shown even in a setting where participants interact anonymously with unknown partners 6 (e.g., Gallucci & Perugini, 2000;Goren & Bornstein, 1999;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), 7 supporting the idea that people see reciprocal behavior as an important social value, 8 independent of the presence of others or external sanctions. Nevertheless, there is also 9 evidence that reciprocity produces stronger compliance in a public condition compared to a 10 private condition ( ). 11 ...
Die Dissertation besteht im Wesentlichen aus zwei Teilen: der Synopse und einem empirischen Teil. In der Synopse werden die Befunde aus dem empirischen Teil zusammengefasst und mit der bisherigen Forschungsliteratur in Zusammenhang gesetzt. Im empirischen Teil werden alle Studien, die für diese Dissertation durchgeführt wurden, in Paper-Format berichtet.
Im ersten Teil der Synopse werden grundlegende Annahmen der Terror Management Theorie (TMT) dargelegt—mit besonderem Schwerpunkt auf die Mortalitätssalienz (MS)-Hypothese, die besagt, dass die Konfrontation mit der eigenen Sterblichkeit die Motivation erhöht das eigene Weltbild zu verteidigen und nach Selbstwert zu streben. In diesem Kontext wird auch die zentrale Rolle von Gruppen erklärt. Basierend auf diesen beiden Reaktionen, wird TMT Literatur angeführt, die sich auf bestimmte kulturelle Werte und soziale Normen bezieht (wie prosoziale und pro-Umwelt Normen, materialistische und religiöse Werte, dem Wert der Ehrlichkeit, die Norm der Reziprozität und deskriptive Normen). Darüber hinaus werden Randbedingungen, wie Gruppenmitgliedschaft und Norm-Salienz, diskutiert. Zuletzt folgt eine Diskussion über die Rolle von Gruppen, der Funktion des Selbstwerts und über Perspektiven einer friedlichen Koexistenz.
Der empirische Teil enthält elf Studien, die in acht Papern berichtet werden. Das erste Paper behandelt die Rolle von Gruppenmitgliedschaft unter MS, wenn es um die Bewertung von anderen geht. Das zweite Manuskript geht der Idee nach, dass Dominanz über andere für Sadisten eine mögliche Quelle für Selbstwert ist und daher unter MS verstärkt ausgeübt wird. Das dritte Paper untersucht prosoziales Verhalten in einer Face-to-Face Interaktion. Im vierten Paper wird gezeigt, dass Personen (z.B. Edward Snowden), die im Namen der Wahrheit handeln, unter MS positiver bewertet werden. Im fünften Paper zeigen zwei Studien, dass MS dazu führt, dass mögliche gelogene Aussagen kritischer beurteilt werden. Das sechste Paper zeigt, dass der Norm der Reziprozität unter MS stärker zugestimmt wird. Das siebte Paper geht der Frage nach, inwiefern MS das Einhalten dieser Norm beeinflusst. Und schließlich wird im achten Paper gezeigt, dass MS die Effektivität der Door-in-the-Face Technik erhöht—eine Technik, die auf der Norm der Reziprozität basiert.
... A great deal of research supports the idea that a favor leads to higher compliance toward a following request of the favor-doer (e.g., Cialdini, Green, & Rusch, 1992;Edlund, Sagarin, & Johnson, 2007;Regan, 1971;Whatley, Webster, Smith, & Rhodes, 1999). Research has further indicated that reciprocal behavior is shown even in a setting where participants behave anonymously with unknown partners (e.g., Gallucci & Perugini, 2000;Goren & Bornstein, 1999;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), supporting the idea that people see reciprocal behavior as an important social value, independent of the presence of others or external sanctions. Nevertheless, there is also evidence that reciprocity produces stronger compliance in a public condition compared to a private condition (Whatley et al., 1999). ...
... In this study, we focused on participants' behavioral intentions of returning a favor under MS. Research has indicated that a favor of a server increases tip percentages (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). Thus, in a fictitious scenario, participants read that they had received a favor from a server. ...
... As discussed above, not all norm-focus studies have found effects when simply activating the norm, but did when moderators (e.g., MS) came into play. We speculate that our norm activation is only supposed to induce a weak feeling of obligation to reciprocate a favor (i.e., reading a scenario) compared to an actual favor (Regan, 1971;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), and therefore did not lead to norm conformity without the motivation of worldview bolstering. Thus, although the norm of reciprocity is assumed to be a very strong one, it seems that sometimes an accompanying motivation is needed to produce norm conformity. ...
Research on terror management theory has found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to salient cultural norms and values, such as egalitarianism, pacifism, or helpfulness. A basic and strong internalized norm in most human societies is the norm of reciprocity: People should support those who have supported them, and people should injure those who have injured them, respectively. In two experiments, the authors demonstrate that mortality salience increases adherence to the norm of reciprocity. In Study 1, a favor of a server led to higher tipping after making mortality salient. Study 2 indicated that mortality salience motivated participants to act according to their high dispositional relevance of the norm of negative reciprocity following an unfavorable treatment: Those participants gave less money to a person who had previously refused to help them.
... Thus, knowledge about the factors that contribute to the tipping behavior of customers is valuable (e.g., Saunders & Lynn, 2010;Whaley, Douglas, & O'Neill, 2014). It has been suggested that the factors that influence tipping behavior can be grouped into three basic categories (Rind & Bordia, 1996;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). The first category concerns the characteristics of the customers which includes the number of customers at the table (with larger parties leaving smaller percentage http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.05.001 0092-6566/Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. ...
... The second category concerns characteristics of the server that are not directly tied to job performance such as his or her attractiveness (with more attractive female servers receiving larger tips; Hornik, 1993;Lynn & Simons, 2000) and style of dress (with more attractively dressed servers receiving larger tips; Stillman & Hensley, 1980). The third category concerns the interactions that occur between the server and the customer such as servers briefly touching their customers (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984;Hornik, 1993), squatting during their initial interaction with customers (Lynn & Mynier, 1993), giving their first names to customers during their initial contact (Garrity & Degelman, 1990), smiling at customers during their initial interaction (Tidd & Lockard, 1978), writing messages (e.g., ''Thank you'') or drawing happy faces on the back of the check (Rind & Bordia, 1995;Rind & Bordia, 1996;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), and performing their job well (e.g., attentiveness, speed of service; e.g., Lynn, 2001;Lynn, 2003). ...
The present study attempted to expand what is known about how the personality traits of servers are associated with their job performance ratings and the tips they receive from customers. Personality traits were measured in 259 restaurant servers who were evaluated by their actual customers. Conscientiousness was associated with the average job performance ratings of servers. Extraversion was found to moderate the association that job performance had with the tips that servers received such that tipping behavior was associated with job performance for servers with high levels of extraversion but this association did not emerge for servers with low levels of extraversion. These findings are discussed in the context of understanding the connection between personality traits and job-related outcomes.
... Menon and Dube, 2000;Price et al., 1995). Research undertaken primarily in hotel and restaurant settings indicates that displays of positive emotions on the part of service providers tend to predict customers' purchase and tipping decisions (Cialdini, 1993;Gutek et al., 1999;Rind and Bordia, 1995;Rind and Strohmetz, 1999), and their evaluations of service quality (Jayanti, 1996;Johnson and Zinkhan, 1991). Although this effect may occur through several psychological mechanisms, two potentially fruitful explanations are positive mood arousal and the norm of reciprocity. ...
... These purchases are motivated by a sense of obligation associated with receiving something that is freely given, such as an act of generosity. This explanation has been used to explain, for example, the increased tips that result from servers' insertion of a helpful message on diners' checks (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999). ...
This research examines customers' emotion- and purchase-based reactions to gendered emotional displays in a retail setting. In many situations within a retail environment, doing gender may be seen as a performance (Lucal, 1999) offered in order to satisfy customer needs and to leave customers with a favourable impression of the service provided to them. Given the popularity of shows such as 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' and 'Queer as Folk', a stereotype is emerging in popular culture that gay men have a well-developed fashion sense. In this study, a salesperson adopted a gay persona in an attempt to foster positive customer emotions and maximise sales levels. This study found that customers who were exposed to gendered emotional displays, particularly females, were significantly more satisfied and made more purchases that those who were not exposed to such displays.
... Research on restaurant tipping has generally gravitated toward the economist's domain, often with an applied focus (Azar, 2003;Bodvarsson & Gibson, 1999;Lynn, 2004;Lynn & McCall, 2000;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). However, theoretical problematization reveals critical shortcomings harbored by standard economic conceptions for fully understanding these transactions (Azar, 2004a(Azar, , 2007b, as tipping evidently departs from that discipline's basic assumptions of the ''selfish'' consumer as economic actor and thus has been generally considered both ''irrational'' and ''mysterious'' (Lynn, 2006). ...
... 2. This strategy seems to work only for female servers. Male servers using this strategy actually received a decrease in tip payment (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). ...
Current theoretical frameworks within economics have so far been unable to adequately explain why people tip. This chapter synthesizes anthropological method and theory into a symbolic interactionist approach, attempting to access, through ethnography, the negotiated meanings underlying and actuating tip payment in Vancouver restaurants. Customers tip for a variety of reasons, including (1) for good service, (2) to follow a social norm, (3) out of sympathetic feelings, (4) to demonstrate or enhance social standing, and (5) to secure a specific preference. The disconnect between common rationalizations for tipping, which are often reflections of formalist economic canon, and how customers actually tip, that is, according to social, cultural, and moral factors, suggests that the popular distinction between “economic” and “non-economic” exchanges is ideologically maintained. Tipping illustrates the existence and contours of what Hart (2005) refers to as the two circuits of social life – but also that these two circuits are ideological constructs.
... This variability plays a complex role in individual decision-making behaviors, acting both as an intrinsic motivator affecting the willingness to engage in social exchanges and determining attitudes and behavioral patterns within these exchanges (Miller et al., 2015). Given that people reciprocate even in anonymous settings (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999;Whatley et al., 1999), it is crucial to examine how the norm of reciprocity influences individual participation patterns in social exchanges within VBCs that are characterized by strong anonymity. ...
Purpose
User value co-creation behaviors are crucial for the sustainable development of Virtual Brand Communities. This research, grounded in social exchange theory, investigates the impact of community satisfaction and identification on customer value co-creation behaviors and further explores how the reciprocity norm moderates these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Our research data were collected from users across multiple brand communities, totaling 481 survey responses. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
These results provide in-depth insights into the nexus between user-community relationships and customer value co-creation behaviors. While community satisfaction and identification positively influence co-creation, their effects vary across different value co-creation behaviors. Notably, the reciprocity norm within the community dampens the relationship between community satisfaction and value co-creation behaviors.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies focusing on customer value co-creation behaviors, our research emphasizes social exchange, unveiling the mechanisms behind customer value co-creation. Our findings not only enrich the body of knowledge on customer value co-creation but also deepen our understanding of online collective behavior and knowledge sharing, offering valuable insights for the development of virtual communities.
... For example, customers may tip because of their social concern of obligation to reciprocate (Becker et al., 2012;Fan et al., 2022;Lynn, 2006;Seiter & Weger, 2018). In the interpersonal face-to-face tipping encounter, service providers frequently leverage this social concern using purposeful tipping tactics to persuade customers for tipping compliance (e.g., smiling and complimenting to customers; Bujisic et al., 2014;Seiter, 2007; leaving thankful or helpful message on customers' checks, Rind & Bordia, 1995;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). ...
Drawing on persuasion theory and persuasion knowledge theory, this research evaluates the technology-facilitated preservice tipping practices and tipping enhancement strategies currently employed by food ordering and delivery service platforms such as Uber Eats. The findings from two empirical experimental studies show that, in the technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounter, the presence of a reason to tip increases customers’ tipping amount and lowers their inferred manipulative intent of tipping. The lowered inferred manipulative intent of tipping reduces dissatisfaction with the payment experience and enhanced intention to use such a payment app for future service. However, the adoption of additional server personalization attenuates the positive impact of providing tipping reason on the inferred manipulative intent, dissatisfaction with the payment experience and intention to use such a payment app for future service. The research findings offer practical implications to contemporary hospitality practitioners when facing the emerging technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounters, reminding the marketers about customers’ awareness of and reactance toward firms’ persuasion efforts to make customer spend more.
... Πηνλ ηνκέα ηεο ςπρνινγίαο θαη εηδηθφηεξα ζε απηφλ ηεο θνηλσληθήο ςπρνινγίαο, ε έλλνηα ηεο ακνηβαηφηεηαο έρεη ρξεζηκνπνηεζεί απφ αξθεηνχο επηζηήκνλεο θαη πεηξακαηηζηέο ελ πξνθεηκέλνπ λα εμεγήζεη πνηθηιία θαηλνκέλσλ. Ζ ακνηβαηφηεηα ζπλαληάηαη ζε δηάθνξεο πηπρέο ηεο θαζεκεξηλφηεηαο φπσο ζηελ αιιαγή ζπκπεξηθνξάο (Cialdini, Green & Rusch, 1992), ζηελ νηθεηφηεηα ησλ ζηελψλ αλζξψπηλσλ ζρέζεσλ (Surra & Longstreth, 1990), ζηελ δηαπξνζσπηθή αληίιεςε (Kenny et al., 1996), ζηνλ αιηξνπηζκφ (Krebs, 1975), ζηελ επηζεηηθή θαη ζπκσκέλε ζηάζε (Robarchek & Robarchek, 1998), ζηελ ζπλεξγαζία (Komorita & Parks, 1999), ζηηο ελδν-νκαδηθέο αιιειεπηδξάζεηο (Goren & Bornstein, 1999), ζηελ ζπκπεξηθνξά ηνπ θαηαλαισηή (Miller & Kean, 1997), ζην θηινδψξεκα ηεο εμππεξέηεζεο ησλ εζηηαηνξίσλ (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999) θαη ζηελ αληαιιαγή δψξσλ (Cialdini, 1993). ...
Ο όρος «Συνεταιρισμός» αριθμεί πολλά χρόνια ύπαρξης ενώ παράλληλα οι ρίζες του εντοπίζονται στο εξαιρετικά μακρινό παρελθόν του αρχαίου κόσμου, ακόμη και αν δεν είχε τη σημερινή του μορφή. Αποτελεί ένα οικονομικό αλλά κυρίως κοινωνικό οικοδόμημα πάνω στο οποίο έχουν θεμελιωθεί ποικίλες Αρχές, Αξίες και Κοινωνικές Νόρμες που αποσκοπούν στην οικονομική και συνάμα κοινωνική ανάπτυξη του τόπου. Όλα τα παραπάνω αποτελούν το κοινωνικό κεφάλαιο το οποίο θα πρέπει να υπάρχει μέσα σε κάθε συνεταιρισμό εν προκειμένου να δημιουργηθεί, να αναπτυχθεί και να διατηρηθεί αναλλοίωτος ως θεσμός με το πέρας των χρόνων.
Για να συμβεί αυτό ο παράγοντας «άνθρωπος», τα μέλη του δηλαδή, που αποτελούσαν και αποτελούν τη κινητήριος δύναμη, οφείλουν να είναι πλήρως εναρμονισμένα και να έχουν αφουγκραστεί, ασπαστεί και υιοθετήσει αυτές τις αρχές στο έπακρον. Δυο από τις βασικότερες συνιστώσες από τις οποίες συνθέτεται το κοινωνικό κεφάλαιο και οι οποίες θα πρέπει να εντοπίζονται στους κόλπους κάθε υγιούς συνεταιριστικής οργάνωσης είναι η Αμοιβαιότητα και η Εμπιστοσύνη. Οι τελευταίες, αποτελούν τα προπύλαια κάθε νέου συνεταιριστικού εγχειρήματος αλλά και οι στιβαρές βάσεις πάνω στις οποίες πρέπει να οικοδομηθεί κάθε είδος συνεταιριστικής ιδέας.
Δυστυχώς, στην Ελλάδα και στις μέρες ο υπέροχος, και γεμάτος από κοινωνικά ευεργετήματα, αυτός θεσμός δεν τυγχάνει της ανάλογης που του αρμόζει αναγνώρισης με αποτέλεσμα να αποτελεί ένα μικρό κομμάτι της κοινωνίας μας και να κατέχει ένα μικρότερο μέρος της καθημερινότητας μας. Από τη μία οι πολιτικές των εκάστοτε κυβερνήσεων και από την άλλη οι χρησιμοθηρικές και πελατειακές βλέψεις οδήγησαν το θεσμό του συνεταιρισμού σε μαρασμό, με ελάχιστες εξαιρέσεις να έχουν αποστασιοποιηθεί από αυτόν τον κανόνα. Μήπως όμως για το συγκεκριμένο πρόβλημα δεν ευθύνονται μόνο τα προαναφερθέντα αλλά υποθάλπεται και κάτι άλλο το οποίο δεν γίνεται εύκολα αντιληπτό; Μήπως κυριαρχεί η ανεπάρκεια εμπιστοσύνης και αμοιβαιότητας μεταξύ των μελών των συνεταιριστικών οργανώσεων; Ο παραπάνω προβληματισμός λοιπόν αποτελεί και το ορμητήριο της συγκεκριμένης εργασίας. Η διερεύνηση δηλαδή τουκοινωνικού κεφαλαίου μέσα από τις διαστάσεις της αμοιβαιότητας και της εμπιστοσύνης στα μέλη ποικιλόμορφων συνεταιρισμών στην Ελλάδα.
Η έρευνα βασίστηκε στη χρήση ενός σύνθετου δομημένου ερωτηματολογίου που για τη μέτρηση της αμοιβαιότητας και της εμπιστοσύνης χρησιμοποιούσε τόσο ερωτήσεις όσο και πειραματική οικονομία. Στο πρώτο σκέλος χρησιμοποιήθηκαν εικοσιπέντε ψυχομετρικές μεταβλητές και οι απαντήσεις αυτόν κατηγοριοποιούνταν στη 5-βάθμια κλίμακα Likert ανάλογα με το βαθμό συμφωνίας ή διαφωνίας. Για το δεύτερο σκέλος, τρία παίγνια της Θεωρίας Παιγνίων χρησιμοποιήθηκαν προκειμένου να διαπιστωθεί με ποια οικονομική οντότητα ταυτίζονται περισσότερο τα μέλη που έλαβαν μέρος.
Η ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων του πρώτου μέρους έδειξε ότι σε γενικές γραμμές η ύπαρξη του κοινωνικού κεφαλαίου στα μέλη είναι ορατή, με ελάχιστες ωστόσο εξαιρέσεις. Στο δεύτερο μέρος και στην εκτέλεση της πειραματικής διαδικασίας τα άτομα έδειξαν να διακατέχονται από αναπτυγμένα συναισθήματα εκτελώντας προσφορές και διαιρέσεις περισσότερο βασιζόμενοι στην αμοιβαιότητα και την εμπιστοσύνη παρά στην ορθή λογική.
(The existence of the term "Cooperative" dates back to the ancient world while its roots are traced back to the extremely distant past even if it was not in its present structure. It is an economic but mainly social edifice on which various principles, values and social norms have been founded aiming at the economic and at the same time social development of the local area. All of the above constitute the social capital that must exist within each cooperative in order to create, develop and maintain unchanged as an organization over time.
For achieving this, the "human" factor, that is, its members, which were and are the driving force, must be strongly harmonized and have fully embraced and adopted these principles. Two of the key components of social capital that should be identified within any cooperative organization are Reciprocity and Trust. The latter are, not only, the backbone of every new cooperative venture but also the solid foundations on which every kind of cooperative idea must be built.
Unfortunately, nowadays, in Greece this wonderful, and full of social benefits, institution does not receive the recognition that deserves and as a result of this, it constitutes a small part of our society and occupies a smaller part of our daily lives.On the one hand, the policies of each government and on the other hand, the opportunist intentions have led to the abandonment of cooperatives, with only few exceptions of this rule to be exist.But however is the above mentioned responsible for this problem or there is something else that is not easily understood? Is there a lack of trust and reciprocity among members of cooperatives? So, the above reflection is therefore the basis of this work. The exploration of social capital through the dimensions of reciprocity and trust amongst the members of various kinds of cooperatives in Greece.
The research was based on the use of a complex structured questionnaire that used both questions and experimental economics methods to measure reciprocity and trust. Twenty-five psychometric variables were used in the first part and the responses of them were categorized on a 5-point Likert scale according to the degree of agreement or disagreement. For the second part, three listed games of Game Theory were used to determine which economic entity is most closely matched the members who participated.
The analysis of the results of the first part has shown that in general the existence of social capital amongst members is visible, with few exceptions, however. In the second part and in the execution of the experimental process, individuals were shown to have developed emotions by making offers and divisions more based on reciprocity and trust than on rationality.)
... Customers seek reciprocity with the company from which they buy (Schultz and Bailey, 2000) and studies in that context have mostly focused on behaviors with economic consequences (Perugini et al., 2003). For example, reciprocity has served to explain increased restaurant tipping when servers made an extra effort (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999). A company's positive treatment (i.e. ...
Purpose
Controversy exists about the shape of the relationship between loyalty and profitability. This paper aims to address the possibly nonlinear effects of behavioral loyalty (BLOY) on customer spending (as a proxy for profitability). Building on social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity, it examines the asymmetries between BLOY and customer spending and the moderating influence of personal communication (PCOMM) as a social reward and dispositional positive reciprocity as process evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1a ( n = 309) gathered customer data from four restaurants and Study 1b ( n = 252) data from hotel guests after they checked out. Study 2 is an experimental study with two manipulated factors BLOY and PCOMM). In total, 295 participants from a large German online panel completed the study.
Findings
The results indicate an inverted-U shaped relationship between BLOY and customer spending: after reaching a turning point, customers gradually curb spending as their BLOY further increases. High PCOMM acts as a reciprocal response while triggering additional customer spending particularly at higher levels of behavioral loyalty; positive reciprocity adjusts the differences in customer spending when social rewards such as PCOMM are present.
Research limitations/implications
The asymmetric relationship between BLOY and customer spending is tested only for hedonic service settings.
Practical implications
Not all loyal customers spend more – companies need to meet their reciprocal obligations before they can benefit from increased customer spending.
Originality/value
The present research re-considers the nature of the relationship between BLOY and customer spending and reveals an inverted-U shaped relationship, with a turning point beyond which greater customer loyalty decreases customer spending. It finds converging process evidence for the mechanism of reciprocity underlying this relationship. This study also details the financial impact of BLOY on the firm by investigating actual customer spending.
... For servers, this gratitude should lead to reciprocal behavior by customers and therefore increased tips (Futrell, 2015). And indeed, the research that focused on benevolent acts like writing a helpful message on the back of the bill (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), boxing customers' leftovers (Seiter & Wenger, 2018), or providing a small gift of candy (Strohmetz et al., 2002) found significantly increased tips. ...
The present study analyzes the effect on tipping when a gift is offered by servers, and shows that customers generously reciprocate that gift by significantly increasing gratuity. Making the norm of reciprocity focal by offering the identical gift at an opportunity to directly reciprocate, that is, concurrently with bringing the bill, even doubles this effect, indicating that service personnel can substantially—and effortlessly—raise their tips just by leveraging this reciprocity norm.
... As such, the hailed taxi driver who chooses to stop may be perceived as more helpful which thus renders a larger gratuity. Rind and colleagues (Rind & Bordia, 1995, 1996Rind & Strohmetz, 1999;Strohmetz et al., 2002) showed that including a candy or "thank you" increased tip amount by upwards of 17%, and attributed this phenomenon to customers' perceptions of server kindness. That kindness, much like a driver's choice to intercept the pedestrian, would thus compel offering a greater gratuity. ...
The present study evaluated the extent to which reciprocity (equity) theory could explain differential levels of tipping in New York taxi fares. From 2014 to 2017, the database recorded 73 million cab fares; however, only credit transactions (i.e., recording patrons’ tips) were included (28 million fares). Based on a reciprocity hypothesis, patrons in cabs hailed randomly off the street were expected to tip more compared to patrons who arranged travel at a dispatch centre. An analysis of covariance for each of the four years supported this, wherein patrons in hailed cabs tipped twice the percentage (14%) than patrons in dispatched cabs (7%); these results were confirmed using equivalent procedures that assumed neither normality nor variance homogeneity. Several limitations are discussed, as are directions for future research. Keywords: reciprocity, tipping, equity, genuine intention, taxi
... If tipping in LSRs is becoming "the new normal," both academics and practitioners would benefit from applying the extant findings on external cues and their influence on tipping behavior to LSR point-of-sale screen design at the stage in which the tip request occurs. For example, future research could determine whether any of the cues which positively affect FSR tipping behavior, such as including a "Thank You" message or symbols such as smiley-faces (Guéguen and Legoherel, 2000;Rind and Strohmetz, 1999), would also be applicable at LSRs. Color has been found to influence emotion and mood states (Labrecque et al., 2013) and therefore could also be explored as a method to avoid customer irritation. ...
Purpose
Tipping within the foodservice industry has traditionally been reserved for full-service restaurants. However, there is a growing trend of tip requests at limited-service restaurants, where tipping occurs prior to consuming the product. This research aims to examine the effect of a point-of-sale tip request at limited-service restaurants on return intentions via customer irritation. It also aims to analyze the moderating effects of check amount and perceived deservingness.
Design/methodology/approach
Four online scenario-based experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. Participants were recruited from MTurk for all experiments (N Study 1 = 152; N Study 2 = 296; N Study 3 = 206; N Study 4 = 134).
Findings
Studies 1 and 2 suggested a negative impact of presenting a tip request on return intentions, with customer irritation as the underlying mechanism. Study 3 found the indirect effect was significant only when the check amount was low. Study 4 found that perceived deservingness of a tip also moderated this effect; the indirect effect was significant only when customers felt the employee did not deserve a tip. The effect was attenuated when customers felt the employee deserved a tip.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the underexplored area of tipping behavior in the limited-service context. The findings contrast extant research on voluntary tipping at full-service restaurants, thus advancing theory by suggesting the consequences of tip requests are contextual and providing practical insights to limited-service establishments contemplating whether to begin requesting tips.
... Social exchange theory suggests that human relationships involve continuous exchanges between individuals (Andersson & Pearson, 1999;Baron & Neuman, 1996;Burger, 1986;Charness et al., 2007;Leymann, 1990;McCabe et al., 2003;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). Individuals calculate the worth of their interpersonal exchanges by considering the rewards and costs of these exchanges in terms of the positive value or negative value they bring (Homan, 1961). ...
Reciprocity is a fundamental mechanism for sustained social relationships. Escalation-based theories suggest that reciprocity intensifies over time. In contrast, equity-based theories propose that people reciprocate behaviors in kind. We reconcile these conflicting perspectives by examining social exchanges across different cultural contexts. Using three complementary experiments, we investigate when, how, and why individuals in East Asian settings and those in North American settings differentially reciprocate positive versus negative behaviors over time. Study 1 demonstrated that in positively framed exchanges (i.e., giving) Americans escalated their reciprocity, but Singaporeans reciprocated in kind. However, in negatively framed exchanges (i.e., taking), Singaporeans escalated their reciprocity, but Americans reciprocated in kind. Study 2 replicated the results using Hong Kongers and showed that cultural differences in regulatory focus were associated with specific emotions (i.e., anxiety and happiness), which then escalated reciprocity. To establish causality, Study 3 manipulated regulatory focus within one culture and replicated the pattern of results.
... In addition, research suggests that food servers' verbal and nonverbal communication affects customers' tipping behavior (see Lynn, 2011). Past studies, for instance, found that servers' earn higher tips when they compliment customers (Seiter, 2007;Seiter and Weger, 2010), leave messages on customers' checks (Guéguen and Legoherel, 2000;Jacob et al., 2013;Rind and Bordia, 1995;Rind and Strohmetz, 1999;Seiter and Gass, 2005), wear cosmetics and certain colors (Guéguen, 2012;Guéguen, and Jacob, 2012;Jacob et al., 2010), forecast good weather (Rind, 1996), mirror customers' behavior (van Baaren et al., 2003), give free candy (Strohmetz et al., 2002), and tell jokes (Guéguen, 2002). ...
The three experiments presented here examined the effectiveness of restaurant servers who memorize customers’ orders rather than writing orders down. In the experiments, participants viewed videos of simulated server-diner interactions and provided ratings of service quality and expected tip amount. Experiment 1 found no advantage to memorizing orders over writing them down. Experiment 2 found that memorized and correctly delivered entrees resulted in statistically significant increases in customers’ perceptions of service quality and in marginally higher tips. In addition, muddled (versus correct) orders resulted in lower ratings of service quality and dramatically lower anticipated tips. Experiment 3 found that memorizing and muddling complex orders had no effect on perceptions of service quality but led to significantly lower expected tips. The applied and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
... Fifth, if people do not experience gratitude, they are less likely to notice help and less likely to reciprocate the help they do notice (McCullough et al., 2001). In addition, people who are not thanked are less likely to provide help in the future (Carey, Clicque, Leighton, & Milton, 1976;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). Finally, interventions recommended in the psychology of sport injury literature largely operate at an intrapersonal level; therefore, we need to consider interventions operating at other levels, especially considering that a fallacy in the culture of sport exists that athletes' success is wholly determined by individual effort and ability (Wagstaff, 2017). ...
This study explored the efficacy of a gratitude intervention (i.e., gratitude visit) to promote sport injury-related growth (SIRG). Participants (N=30) were purposefully assigned to either the experimental or non-treatment control group. The intervention required injured athletes to write and share a gratitude letter with an intended recipient. Social validation interviews (N=30) were conducted with the experimental group and recipients (e.g., parents, siblings, partners, physiotherapists). Findings revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control group over time for one growth dimension (i.e., relating to others). Other growth dimensions were nonsignificant. Findings illustrate the importance of aligning interventions with growth dimensions.
... Various authors have found that several other factors influence the tipping decision (Azar 2010;Saunders & Lynn 2010;Becker, Bradley & Zantow 2012;Lynn 2015;Saayman & Saayman 2015). Rind and Bordia (1996) and Rind and Strohmetz (1999) divided tipping behaviour into the following three basic categories: the characteristics of the customer, the characteristics of the server/waiter(ess) and, lastly, the interaction between the server and the characteristics of the customer. Saayman (2014) added another category, namely external factors (e.g. ...
The literature on dining and tipping behaviour has focused mostly on the United States of America (USA), while minimal research has been conducted in African countries. While there is a negative and grounded perception surrounding black diners being poor tippers in the USA, hardly any research has focused on the dining or tipping behaviour of this dining market from a developing country perspective. The intention of this exploratory research was to fill the current knowledge gap by segmenting black South Africans on the basis of their motives for dining out and to determine the differences in the dining and tipping behaviour of the different segments. To target potential black diners, a visitor survey was conducted at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. A total of 256 usable questionnaires were returned and included in the analysis. Socialisation, gastronomy enjoyment, lifestyle and escape and status were identified as the four motives for dining out. Based on these motives, different black dining segments were identified and an OSI (Occasionalists, Socialisers and Indulgers) typology of diners proposed. The dining and tipping behaviour of these dining segments are furthermore influenced by several factors, with clear implications for both the server and restaurateurs. The results shed light on the dining and tipping behaviour of black South African diners and showed that this dining market cannot be regarded as bad tippers.
... This principle implies that people try to maintain stable and reciprocal relationships with others and that an imbalance in a relationship is unpleasant and motivates people to return favors. The reciprocity norm has a particularly important role when people expect to see the person who asks for help again in the future, although it operates even when there is no expectation of future interaction (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999;Whatley, Webster, Smith and Rhodes, 1999). The need for reciprocity may also influence our behavior in a more general way. ...
In this chapter, prosocial behavior will be analyzed from a social psychology point of view, examining the theoretical contributions of the past ten years and highlighting the various interpretations that have been proposed. Specifically, the focus will be on the analysis of the motivations that characterize a person who behaves altruistically. Theoretical models that will be examined include those that consider the possibility of a genuine altruistic motivation, as well as those that hypothesize that true altruism does not exist. In fact, it will be shown how the motivation behind altruistic behavior has been interpreted differently by social psychologists as being either intrinsically egoistic (the person helping does so to improve his own well being) or truly altruistic (the only objective is to improve the wellbeing of the other person). Considering the vast literature focusing on the behavioral role of emotions, the leitmotif of this chapter consists of the analysis of emotional states that give rise to altruistic behavior. After surveying the classical theories of altruism in the first part of the chapter, the focus will shift towards the well known '‘Bystander Effect’’ - which governs altruistic behavior linked mostly to special situations where a person casually encounters someone in trouble and, as a consequence, decides whether or not to intervene.
... In the field of psychology, and especially in social psychology, the concept of reciprocity has been used by many scientists to explain a variety of phenomena. Reciprocity meets in different aspects of everyday life, such as attitude change (Cialdini, Green and Rusch, 1992), intimacy in close relationships (Surra and Longstreth, 1990), interpersonal perception (Kenny et al., 1996), altruism (Krebs, 1975), aggression (Robarchek and Robarchek, 1998), cooperation (Komorita and Parks, 1999), intergroup interactions (Goren and Bornstein, 1999), consumer shopping and behavior (Miller and Kean, 1997), restaurant tipping (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999), and gift giving (Cialdini, 1988). It also has been used in several other sciences and their disciplines and sub-disciplines, like in sociology, sociobiology, economics, political science, anthropology, animal behavior, and evolutionary psychology and biology (Axelrod, 1984;Cosmides and Tooby, 1989;de Waal and Berger, 2000;Fehr, Gachter and Kirchsteiger, 1997;Hoffman, McCabe and Smith, 1998;Nowak and Sigmund, 1998;Trivers, 1971;Wedekind and Milinski, 2000). ...
The Theory of Expected Utility is the central theory that describes the way individuals make a decision according to the classical economic theory. Despite the fact of that, experimental studies on individuals' behavioral attitude of the last 20 years have shown that this theory does not accurately represent human behavior from a descriptive point of view. On the contrary, these studies bear out that reciprocity is the motivational drive of human decisions. People have a reciprocal behavior if they praise and repay good deeds and punish unkind ones. On the other hand, they are rational if they make every effort to maximize the benefit and their utility. In this review paper, we present a theoretical framework of reciprocity's measuring through the experimental economics. In particular, we propose an experimental way of identifying the incentives under which the subjects make a decision. Are they motivated by other people's well-being or by material self-interest? For achieving this, Homo Economicus and Homo Reciprocans ''conflict'' amid two different games of Game Theory. These games (Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game) create a new one, which is called ''The Reciprocity Game'' and it is going to offer us an important theoretical basis for the empirical measurement of human reciprocity in the future.
... The results indicated that the server's introduction resulted in a significantly higher tipping rate. Furthermore, the same positive correlation was found in cases when servers wrote "Thank you" on the back of receipts (Rind & Bordia, 1995) or a helpful message (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), when they drew a smile on the check (Guéguen & Legohérel, 2000), or when they complimented the restaurant guests on their choice of food (Seiter, 2007;Seiter & Weger, 2010). Similar findings were reported from other service sectors (Seiter & Dutson, 2007). ...
Verbal communication is the main form of personal interaction. This article presents evidence for the positive role of service staff’s verbalized hospitality on consumer behaviour. The principal aim of the study was to explore the effect of verbal attention on making additional purchases and tipping behaviour in three different countries (Sweden, England, and Serbia). Moreover, research investigated whether server gender, customer gender, and group size moderate the relationship between verbal attention, additional purchase, and tipping behaviour. For the purpose of the study, servers in casual dining restaurants either paid special verbal attention to group diners, or did not do so, before asking target questions. The results show that group diners in verbal attention conditions make additional purchases and leave tips more often. While group size moderates the relationship between verbal attention and additional purchase and tipping behaviour, such role was not confirmed in the case of server gender and customer gender. The theoretical and practical implications of verbal interaction between servers and customers are discussed, as well as differences in three analysed countries.
... Desse modo, ela é vista como uma preferência individual, pois vai representar uma tendência pessoal a se comportar de maneira recíproca, independentemente de ser ou não usada estrategicamente (Perugini & Gallucci, 2001). Alguns estudos dão suporte a essa ideia, indicando que o comportamento recíproco se apresenta mesmo quando as pessoas interagem anonimamente umas com as outras (Goren & Bornstein, 1999;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999). ...
O presente estudo objetivou adaptar para o contexto brasileiro o Questionário Norma Pessoal de Reciprocidade (QNPR), reunindo evidências de sua validade fatorial e consistência interna. Participaram 203 universitários, com idade média de 20,6 anos (DP = 4,54). Os dados foram analisados separadamente para crenças e comportamentos em reciprocidade. A primeira parte referente às crenças na reciprocidade contou com nove itens, com alfa de Cronbach de 0,66 e saturações variando de 0,33 a 0,65; na parte referente aos comportamentos em reciprocidade, dois componentes emergiram: o primeiro denominado reciprocidade negativa contou com nove itens, com saturações variando de 0,46 a 0,80 e alfa de Cronbach de 0,85 enquanto o segundo componente foi denominado reciprocidade positiva, e contou com sete itens e saturações variando de 0,46 a 0,76, com alfa de Cronbach de 0,74. Concluiu-se que esses achados apoiam a adequação psicométrica deste instrumento, que apresenta evidências de validade e precisão.
... However, neither of self-interest and fairness assumptions can explain reciprocal behaviors in certain situations. For example, people will reciprocate with genetically unrelated strangers, with people they will never meet again, when reputation or material gains are small or absent (Berg, Dickeout, & McCabe, 1995;Komorita, Parks, & Hulbert, 1992;Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), and even when altruistic punishment is costly (Fehr, Fischbacher, & Gächter, 2002). There are clear individual differences in reciprocity (Gallucci & Perugini, 2000). ...
Human beings have a general tendency for reciprocity in most societies. The internalized reciprocity norm assumption suggests that reciprocity disposition would encourage reciprocity towards strangers in one-shot interactions. To verify this, we examined the predictive ability of reciprocity dispositions for giving and repaying reciprocal behaviors. A sample of college students (N = 98) participated in the reciprocity game in a laboratory, which comprised a prisoner dilemma game (PD) and dictator game (DG). The results indicated that reciprocity behavior occurred among strangers without face-to-face interactions. Reciprocity expectation predicted the choice of cooperation in the PD significantly. Positive and negative reciprocity dispositions had no effect on the strategy choice; however, they significantly predicted payoff allocation in the DG. Specifically, a higher positive reciprocity disposition led to more payoff allocation, while a higher negative reciprocity disposition led to less payoff allocation. In summary, strangers abide by the reciprocity norm, and the internalized reciprocity disposition exerts an influence on repaying behavior and accounts for some individual differences in reciprocity. These findings provide robust support for the internalized reciprocity norm assumption, and illustrate the process mechanism of human interaction among strangers. People may predict interpersonal interaction better through reciprocity dispositions and reciprocity valences.
... In this regard, Crusco and Wentzel (1984), as well as Rind and Strohmetz (2001), have found that good weather (sunny days) has a positive impact on the decision to tip. In addition, the size of the town or city also has a positive impact on tips (Lynn & Thomas-Haybert, 2003; Garrity & Degelman, 1990; Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), as well as the location and whether the restaurant is elegant. This research therefore aims to expand on this topic. ...
Tipping is an important source of income for a variety of occupations in the hospitality and tourism
industry. One such occupation is waitressing and although much research has been done, especially
in America, very little has been done in African countries. The purpose of this paper is therefore to
determine the reasons why people tip or do not tip, as well as which socio-demographic and
behavioural variables have the greatest influence on tipping. A survey was conducted at restaurants
during the Aardklop National Festival, where 400 questionnaires were distributed. Results have shown
that the reasons why people tip are financial, good service and social acceptability. Results have also
revealed that more behavioural than socio-demographic variables influence the tipping decision.
... so strongly internalized that people reciprocate even under anonymity (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999;Whatley, Webster, Smith, & Rhodes, 1999), a fact that rules out seeking social approval or maintaining one's reputation as an explanation for the reciprocation. And people feel obligated to repay favors even when the favor is unrequested and provided by someone not liked (Cialdini, 2009;Regan, 1971). ...
Why are employee loyalty and effort sometimes not reciprocated by employers? Five experimental studies tested the hypothesis that people feel less obligated to reciprocate in an organizational as contrasted with a personal context. Studies 1A and 1B showed that participants felt less obligated to reciprocate the favors of others when they imagined themselves in an organizational rather than a personal context, in part because they were less likely to think that people’s motives for helping were genuine and reflected the other’s true character. Study 2 demonstrated that in an organizational context, individuals were more calculative, deciding to reciprocate or not depending on the favor-doer’s anticipated future usefulness. Studies 3 and 4 extended these results using two different behavioral measures of reciprocating. The findings suggest that the norm of reciprocity may be weaker in organizational contexts in part because such settings elicit more contextual rather than personal attributions and more calculative and future-oriented decision frames.
... The few studies examining this practice have found support for the effect. Specifically, writing "thank you" on the check was shown to increase tip size by 11 per cent (Rind and Bordia, 1995); providing a helpful message was shown to increase tips by 17 per cent (Rind and Strohmetz, 1999); providing patriotic messages was shown to increase tips by 28 per cent (Seiter and Gass, 2005); and drawing a picture of a "smiley face" was shown to increase tips for waitresses by 19 per cent (Rind and Bordia, 1996). ...
Research has shown that personalizing receipts, such as drawing “smiley faces” and writing “thank you” notes on customer bills to express gratitude, can result in larger tips for restaurant wait staff. Although the practice of receipt personalization has been supported using field experiments, limited research has examined the effectiveness of this technique based on the level of service quality provided by restaurant wait staff. Using a scenario-based approach, we found from this study that adding a personalized message significantly lowers tip percentages. Moreover, the negative effect is magnified when service quality fails to exceed customer expectations. Implications related to the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Tipping has been the subject of numerous studies in social psychology and other disciplines (for a review, see Lynn, 2006). Much of this research has examined the effects on tipping of service (Lynn, 2003;Lynn & McCall, 2000) and of specific server behaviors, such as smiling at customers (Tidd & Lockard, 1978), touching customers (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984;Hornik, 1992;Lynn, Le, & Sherwyn, 1998), giving customers candy (Strohmetz, Rind, Fisher, & Lynn, 2002), squatting down next to the table (Davis et al., 1998;Lynn & Mynier, 1993) and writing or drawing on the check (Rind & Bordia, 1995, 1996Rind & Strohmetz, 1998, 2001. ...
A national telephone survey indicated that knowledge about the restaurant tipping norm is greater among people who are White, in their 40 s to 60 s, highly educated, wealthy, living in metropolitan areas, and living in the Northeast than among their counterparts. These findings support the idea that differential familiarity with tipping norms underlies geodemographic differences in tipping behavior. An educational campaign promoting the 15-20% restaurant tipping norm is needed to reduce geodemographic differences in tipping and to increase the willingness of waiters and waitresses to serve all customers equally.
... Employees must therefore manage their emotions in order to fit with their organization's emotional culture and climate. Interactions between employees and customers represent another important source of emotion management because of the influence of employees' emotions on clients' purchase behaviors (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999), the need to maintain the organization's image (Gutek, Cherry, & Groth, 1999), and the stress that may be associated with interactions such as incivility or aggression (e.g., Grandey, Dickter, & Sin, 2004; Lee & Brotheridge, 2006a). Finally, emotions are also managed to maintain good relationships with colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. ...
Because our emotions are crucial determinants of how well we function in our personal and professional lives, researchers from different perspectives have sought to understand how emotions can be best managed for optimal functioning. In this chapter, we focus on two research traditions that have examined this issue, the emotion regulation (ER) tradition and the emotional labor (EL) tradition. This effort is predicated on the belief that a more fundamental research tradition such as ER can inform and complement a more applied research tradition such as EL, first by extending our understanding of the various processes by which employees deal with their emotions, and second, by permitting a more accurate prediction of the consequences of these emotions. A case is presented that discriminating more finely between the various emotion management strategies may help to resolve some of the paradoxical findings observed in the EL literature.
... One example illustrates this point. The recent popularity of research on factors that influence restaurant tipping (Rind & Strohmetz, 1999Rogelberg, Ployhart, Balzer, & Yonker, 1999;Strohmetz, Rind, Fisher, & Lynn, 2002) in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology demonstrates the most callous and irrelevant use of resources, a dismaying return to the fun-and-games research of the 1950s. Doesn't applied social psychology wish to be relevant to the depletion of natural resources, widespread violations of human rights, politically motivated violence like terrorism, massive health problems like AIDS and poverty due to the concentration of world wealth in a few countries? ...
Across the last four decades, applied social psychology has sought to apply theories to 'real world' social problems, hoping for some insight into intractable social issues. This paper reviews applied social psychology discourse on the application of theory in the resolution of social problems, with a focus on the 'post-crisis' literature. This analysis suggests that much of applied social psychology lacks serious theoretical analysis and has yet to use the kind of theory needed to understand social problems. While exceptions to these trends are noted and discussed, current mainstream applied social psychology, as exemplified by a survey of recent texts, seems highly individualistic, rarely focused on important social issues, and generally atheoretical. Two themes, which run counter to these trends—the emergence of critical psychology and renewed attention to the limits of generalizability, along with the importance of knowing contexts— may set the agenda for further theoretical efforts in applied social psychology.
Despite the well‐documented positive individual and interpersonal benefits of receiving help, we argue that it can also lead to potentially damaging moral consequences for the organization. The purpose of this study is to add to our understanding of the moral consequences of receiving help and the inhibitors of reporting unethical behavior in organizations. Drawing from social exchange theory and the moral psychology of obligation, we argue that employees will be less likely to report a wrongdoer internally when they have received help from that person in the past due to feelings of obligation, or feeling that “I don't want to, but I have to.” Using laboratory experiments, we found that participants significantly reduced their internal reporting behavior after receiving a small favor, even when they had no prior relationship with the wrongdoer, due to feelings of obligation. We replicated the effect in a multi‐wave survey study. This effect was strengthened by positive reciprocity beliefs and help solicitation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our research.
With the rapid development of China's economy, luxury consumption is gradually taking up an important position in the Chinese market, and the Chinese luxury market has attracted the attention of major luxury brands. This study takes Louis Vuitton, the representative of luxury goods, as a case study to explain the history and current situation of Louis Vuitton, and to point out the problems of its brand marketing in China. The article also analyzed the characteristics needed for luxury brands to expand into the Chinese market.
Purpose
This research aimed to fill several gaps in the tipping literature which has overlooked the server's perspective in identifying and understanding variables that influence a tip amount and therefore where they concentrate their efforts during the service encounter. Furthermore, the extant literature has theorized how or why certain variables influence the tip amount, but these studies fail to capture insight from server's which would supplement the theory and provide a more in-depth understanding of the mechanisms at play.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a grounded theory approach using semi-structured one-on-one interviews with tipped restaurant employees who were identified and selected using snowball sampling. Content analysis is employed to code and categorize the data.
Findings
The content analysis revealed five categories where servers focus their time and effort to earn tips: service quality, connection, personal factors, expertise and food quality. The server's personality was identified as a variable the tipping literature has largely ignored as a determinant of the tip amount. Server's shift their style of service for groups of eight or more people, and for regular customers, who must dine in the restaurant at least once per week. Lastly, despite the many drawbacks associated with working for tips, servers would not want to replace it with any other method of compensation.
Originality/value
This is the first qualitative study focused on understanding the server's role in the service exchange relationship since McCarty et al. (1990) study. The results provide new insights on the often-studied variables from the tipping literature.
With empirical insights gained across a series of studies, the current research examines the technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounter. Drawing on the tip-enhancing literature and the spatial crowding theory, this research reveals the divergent impacts of tip suggestion on consumers’ tipping behaviors and their satisfaction with the digital payment experience. Our findings show that, while effective in elevating tipping amount, the presence of tip suggestion can frustrate consumers and impose a detrimental impact on their satisfaction with the online payment experience. Particularly, this effect is contingent on the design of the digital payment page: The negative effect of tip suggestion on satisfaction with the payment experience is more profound when the digital payment page follows a crowded layout but mitigated when the layout is spacious. Findings from the current research offer timely contributions to theory and practice with an evolving perspective on the technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounter.
This paper explores several determinants of tipping behavior. First, I consider two social norms explanations—reciprocity and letdown (guilt) aversion—of why consumers tip in restaurants. Second, I examine three aspects of the tipping situation that influence how much consumers tip in restaurants: table size, sex, and method of bill payment. I address these issues using two data sources: a field survey and laboratory experiments. Customers were surveyed individually as they left a set of restaurants in Richmond, Virginia. The laboratory experiments vary service quality, table size, and information about others' tips in a controlled setting. Results from both data sets show support for reciprocity and letdown aversion, and that tip size decreases with table size. Sex differences, which exist only in the experimental data, show that men tip more than women. Finally, the size of the tip does not depend on the method of bill payment.
The main aim of this hypothetical study was to clarify the impact of the head scarf (Hijab) of a Muslim waitress on tipping behavior in restaurants and the degree of acceptance the waitress gained based on her image when she is wearing the headscarf (Hijab) or when she is not. also The study also explored the impact of gender, job title and age variables relating to women. The study was conducted on a sample of the staff and members of faculty at Yarmouk University in northern Jordan, and the sample comprised 826 people who responded to an online survey. The study concluded that there is a clear influence of the head scarf (Hijab) on tips where the waitress with a head scarf (hijab) tended to receive greater tips than a waitress without one on. Members of the study sample were more accepting to the image of the head scarfed waitress (with hijab). The study also showed that male members of the teaching staff and the older age groups paid more to the head scarfed waitress (with hijab) and they showed more acceptance to the image of the waitress with hijab, thus showing reasonable acceptable cultural bias. The study recommended that females in Jordanian society need to know that their head scarves will not hinder their work in the restaurant sector and that they will likely be more acceptable and will probably gain a larger share of tips, due to the fact that the Jordanian society have shown attention to the waitress with head scarf (hijab) at the expense of the one without a hijab. The study recommends the necessity for conducting more studies on the Arab environment to investigate other behaviors and variables that have other influences on tips and for expanding the scope of the study.
Recently developed statistical tools are used to assess the evidential value and replicability of the published experimental literature on ways to increase tips. Significantly right-skewed full and half p-curves indicate that the literature is more than a collection of Type 1 errors – it provides evidence of real effects. Moreover, those real effects are scattered across both replicated and non-replicated effects as well as across the work of each of the major contributors to this literature. An overall r-index of 0.55 indicates that over half of the reported effects would likely be replicated if the studies were repeated. More research is need to ascertain the reliability of specific effects – especially those reported by Gueguen, because lower power makes his effects less replicable than others in the literature. Nevertheless, readers can be reasonably confident that most of the techniques for increasing tips in this literature will work.
The present experiment attempted to determine whether or not the modeling effect reported in the helping-behavior literature could be used to enhance tipping behavior. In 5 bakeries, confederates who were placed ahead of a subject were instructed to give (or not) some money to the employee. The subsequent behavior of 300 subjects was then observed and the money given to the employee was also evaluated. Results showed that a tipping-model led the subject to more readily give a tip to the employee. It was also observed that the mean of tipping was significantly greater in the modeling condition than in the control condition.
Service economies are largely predicated on the expectation that the power in service exchanges lies with the consumer. Customers control the interaction through overt demands and gratuities. However, as I demonstrate, the social power and institutional backing of service providers can undermine this notion. Based on participant observation of calzone delivery drivers, I explore interpersonal manipulation in fast-food delivery. The article focuses on the techniques employed by a group of well-educated, white, male calzone delivery drivers aimed at managing customers and their tipping behavior. I explore the ways that the drivers purposively presented selves and sculpted their delivery interactions in order to maximize their gratuities. I conclude by examining the social and structural factors that allowed these service workers to deviate from the cultural scripts and rules of etiquette that guide the majority of service exchanges and to engage in a liminal form of emotion management: “venture emotionalism.”
Purpose
– The aims of this paper are to expand understanding on the portability of work experience and to understand how an employee's level of propensity to trust interplays with perceived value of previous career‐long work experience to affect on‐the‐job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
– A sample of 127 new employees of three newly opened locations of a national full‐service restaurant chain were surveyed during the orientation phase of their jobs. This was followed up three‐four weeks later by job performance ratings from supervisors.
Findings
– The higher the perceived value of previous work experience the stronger the relationship between industry work experience and job performance. Also, the higher the perceived value of previous work experience the weaker the relationship between propensity to trust and job performance.
Research limitations/implications
– Because this study concentrated on a single firm in a single industry, generalizability to other industries may suffer.
Practical implications
– Employees that seek to find value in their current jobs may be more valuable in their future jobs. Also, employees who lack valuable prior work experiences will need to rely more on their propensity to trust other employees if they want to perform well at their new jobs.
Originality/value
– The study explains the reasoning behind prior inconsistencies in the work experience‐job performance literature by introducing the concept of perceived value of previous work experience and explaining how this relates to propensity to trust in a newcomer relationship.
This study examined whether different forms of address used by food servers were related to customers' tipping behavior. Food servers addressed diners who paid with credit cards by their first names, titles plus last names, sir/ma'am, or no address. Results indicated that when food servers personalized their service by addressing their customers by name, they earned significantly higher tips than when they used less immediate forms of address, although customers' estimated age mediated these results.
Tipping is an interesting economic behavior because it is an expense that consumers are free to avoid. Although called for by social norms, tips are not legally required. Furthermore, since tips are not given until after services have been rendered, they are not necessary to get good service in establishments that are infrequently patronized. For this reason, many economists regard tipping as mysterious or seemingly irrational behavior. The present chapter explores this behavior and its implications for economic theory and public policy. The chapter is divided into four sections. The first two sections provide more detail about the phenomenon of tipping by summarizing and discussing the results of empirical research on the determinants and predictors of restaurant tipping and of national differences in tipping customs respectively. Then, economic theories about tipping are reviewed in light of the previously summarized empirical literature. Finally, the public welfare and policy issues raised by tipping are discussed.
To the extent servers can establish an interpersonal connection with the customer, they can earn higher tips. One source of interpersonal connection between the server and the customer is interpersonal similarity, in the form of food service experience. Research by social scientists, combined with casual empiricism, suggests that customers with food service experience tip better than customers without food service experience. Using survey data collected outside of five Richmond, Virginia restaurants, we test this. Our findings, which are robust across a variety of empirical specifications, indicate that the former tip between 4 and 5% more than the latter.
This study examined the effects of food servers' sex, the use of generalized compliments, and the size of the dining party on tipping behavior in restaurants. Four food servers (2 males, 2 females) waited on 360 parties eating dinner, and either complimented or did not compliment the parties on their dinner selections. Results indicated that food servers received significantly higher tips when complimenting their parties than when not complimenting them, although as the size of the party increased, the effectiveness of compliments decreased. These results and their implications are discussed.
Former studies showed that a cartoon, such as a smiling face or a cheerful drawing (i.e., the image of the sun), increased the amount of tips given by a customer when added on a bill. A replication was made in accompanying the bill with a small card on which a joke was appended. The experiment took place in a bar with people who had had the same drink. The results showed that people who received the joke card were more likely to tip than were people in the control condition or in a condition where an advertisement card accompanied the bill. The size of the tips left tended to be higher in the joke-card group than in the other conditions. The findings are discussed in terms of the positive mood activated by the joke card, which in turn increased tipping behavior.
Research on terror management theory found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to salient cultural norms and values, like egalitarianism, pacifism, or helpfulness. A basic, strongly internalized norm in most human societies is the norm of reciprocity: people should support those who supported them (i.e., positive reciprocity), and people should injure those who injured them (i.e., negative reciprocity), respectively. In an experiment (N = 98; 47 women, 51 men), mortality salience overall significantly increased personal relevance of the norm of reciprocity (M = 4.45, SD = 0.65) compared to a control condition (M = 4.19, SD = 0.59). Specifically, under mortality salience there was higher motivation to punish those who treated them unfavourably (negative norm of reciprocity). Unexpectedly, relevance of the norm of positive reciprocity remained unaffected by mortality salience. Implications and limitations are discussed.
This study examined the role of gratuity guidelines on tipping behavior in restaurants. When diners were finished with their meals, they were given checks that either did or did not include calculated examples informing them what various percentages of their bill would amount to. Results indicated that parties who received the gratuity examples left significantly higher tips than did those receiving no examples. These results and their implications are discussed.
Research has shown that servers can increase their tip percentages by positively influencing customers' mood and using the compliance technique of reciprocity. These factors were examined in the current study. An experiment was conducted in which a female server either did or did not present customers with a novel, interesting task that has been shown in previous research to stimulate interest and enhance mood. Additionally, sometimes she allowed customers to keep the task, in an attempt to elicit reciprocity. It was predicted that both of these manipulations would increase tip percentages. Presenting customers with the interesting task did increase tips, from about 18.5% to 22%, although the reciprocity manipulation had no effect.
This study examined the role of compliments on tipping behavior in hairstyling salons. Two female hair stylists cut and styled 115 customers' hair and either complimented or did not compliment the customers while interacting. Results indicated that hair stylists received significantly higher tips when complimenting their customers than when not complimenting them. These results and their implications are discussed.
A common practice among servers in restaurants is to give their dining parties an unexpected gift in the form of candy when delivering the check. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of this gesture on the tip percentages received by servers. Experiment 1 found that customers who received a small piece of chocolate along with the check tipped more than did customers who received no candy. Experiment 2 found that tips varied with the amount of the candy given to the customers as well as with the manner in which it was offered. It is argued that reciprocity is a stronger explanation for these findings than either impression management or the good mood effect.
This study examined whether or not a nonreciprocal brief shoulder touch would increase gratuities received by servers. Data from 400 patrons were collected by 4 servers who enacted the touch manipulation while working in 2 separate eating establishments. The findings revealed that servers who touched their patrons did receive larger gratuities than servers who did not touch their patrons. Further, in one setting, servers received larger tips from patrons who were of the opposite gender than from patrons who were of the same gender. These results support the ubiquitous influence of a fleeting touch on gratuities, and the possibility that, in certain situations, touch may be more advantageous when done by members of the opposite gender.
Conducted 2 field studies on the relationship of weather variables to helping behavior. In Study 1 (540 adult Ss), which was executed in the spring and summer and subsequently replicated in the winter, the amount of sunshine reaching the earth was found to be a strong predictor of an S's willingness to assist an interviewer. Smaller relationships were also found between helping and temperature, humidity, wind velocity, and lunar phase. Exp II was conducted indoors with 130 dining parties to control for comfort factors. Sunshine, lunar phase, and S's age and sex were found to predict the generosity of the tip left for a restaurant waitress. Sunshine and temperature were also significantly related to the 6 waitresses' self-reports of mood. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tactile behavior is a basic communication form as well as an expression of interpersonal involvement. This article presents three studies offering evidence for the positive role of casual interpersonal touch on consumer behavior. More specifically, it provides initial support for the view that tactile stimulation in various consumer behavior situations enhances the positive feeling for and evaluation of both the external stimuli and the touching source. Further, customers touched by a requester tend to comply more than customers in no-touch conditions. Implications for consumer behavior theory and research are discussed. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.
Conducted 2 field studies on the relationship of weather variables to helping behavior. In Study 1 (540 adult Ss), which was executed in the spring and summer and subsequently replicated in the winter, the amount of sunshine reaching the earth was found to be a strong predictor of an S's willingness to assist an interviewer. Smaller relationships were also found between helping and temperature, humidity, wind velocity, and lunar phase. Exp II was conducted indoors with 130 dining parties to control for comfort factors. Sunshine, lunar phase, and S's age and sex were found to predict the generosity of the tip left for a restaurant waitress. Sunshine and temperature were also significantly related to the 6 waitresses' self-reports of mood. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Two explanations for the effects of alcohol on prosocial behavior-that is, mood enhancement and cognitive impairment-suggest that restaurant diners should tip more when they have consumed alcohol than when they have not. However, previous attempts to find a relationship between percent tip and alcohol consumption have failed. This failure may be due to statistical problems associated with using percent tip as a measure of tipping. This article reports a study that uses as a dependent variable residuals from a regression of bill size on tip amount. The results of this study indicate that alcohol consumption is positively related to tipping.
The amount tipped by 396 groups of restaurant diners was a function of the number of people eating together as well as the size of the bill. One-third of the variability in tipping was explained by the norm that tip should equal 15% of bill. In addition, consistent with a new theory of division of responsibility, variation around this norm was an inverse power function of group size, specifically, 18%/N'22.
Tested the effect on tipping of a female waitress touching the male patron, the female patron, or neither patron, using 112 pairs of restaurant customers. Results show the average tip in the female condition was 15%, the average tip in the male condition was 13%, and the average tip in the no-touch condition was 11%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested whether smiling could accrue monetary returns. Two degrees of smiling to 96 single adult men and women by a waitress in a cocktail lounge (a college student confederate) were evaluated in terms of number of drinks ordered, size of tip, and whether the customers smiled upon departure. A broad smile reaped more money than a minimal smile and more from the men than from women patrons. Results are discussed in terms of reciprocal altruism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Since its origins in 18th-century English pubs, tipping has become a custom involving numerous professions and billions of dollars. Knowledge of the psychological factors underlying tipping would benefit service workers, service managers, and customers alike. Two studies were conducted to provide such knowledge about restaurant tipping. The percent tipped in these studies was related to group size, the customer's gender, the method of payment (cash or credit), and in some cases, the size of the bill. Tipping was not related to service quality, waitperson's efforts, waitperson's gender, restaurant's atmosphere, or restaurant's food.
Research has shown that a server's smiling can increase restaurant tips and that a server's writing “thank you” on the backs of checks can also increase tips. In the current study, these two approaches were combined. An experiment was conducted in which a male or female server drew a happy, smiling face on the backs of checks before delivering them to customers, or simply delivered checks with nothing drawn on the back. It was predicted that this tactic would increase tips for the female server because of an increased perception of friendliness, but would not increase tips for the male server because such behavior would be perceived as gender-inappropriate. Results were consistent with predictions.
The effect of server posture (standing vs. squatting) on the size of tip left by restaurant customers was examined in two naturalistic experiments. In these studies, squatting down next to the tables increased servers’ tips from those tables. Both the practical implications of this effect and its similarity to other nonverbal effects on tipping are discussed.
Ratios of one variable over another are frequently used in social psychological research in order to control for a linear relationship between the numerator and the denominator. However, the use of ratio variables can introduce spuriousness into data analyses. This article provides a description and explanation of the problem of spuriousness in ratio correlations and it illustrates this problem with research on restaurant tipping.
The present study examined the effects of two types of touch in a controlled but natural setting, a restaurant. Waitresses briefly touched customers either on the hand or the shoulder as they were returning change. Customers' reactions were assessed by a restaurant survey and a novel behavioral measure, the tip expressed as a percentage of the bill. The tipping rate for the two types of touch did not differ from each other and did not differ according to the customer's gender. Both tipping rates were significantly larger than a control, no-touch condition. There were no touch effects on ratings of the waitress, the restaurant's atmosphere, or the dining experience. It was concluded that touch effects can occur without awareness, and that males will not react more negatively to touch than females when the touch is unobtrusive or free of status and dependency connotations.
The effect of a server introducing herself by name on restaurant tipping was investigated. Forty-two, 2-person dining parties were randomly assigned to either a name or a no name introduction condition. The use of a buffet brunch reduced contact between server and diners and held bill size constant. Results indicated that having the server introduce herself by name resulted in a significantly higher tipping rate (23.4%) than when the server did not introduce herself by name (15.0%), p < .001. Tipping rate also was affected by method of payment, with diners who charged the meal having a higher rate (22.6%) than those paying cash (15.9%), p < .001. The findings suggest the importance of initial server-diner interactions. Possible alternative explanations and suggestions for future research are provided.
Servers in restaurants frequently use the tactic of writing “thank you” on the backs of checks before delivering them to dining parties. Servers also frequently personalize their interaction with dining parties by signing their first name below the gratitude message. The effectiveness of these tactics in increasing tips was examined. In a field experiment conducted in an upscale restaurant in a large Northeastern city, a server wrote on the backs of the checks either nothing, “thank you,” or “thank you” plus her first name. The addition of “thank you” increased tip percentages, although personalization by adding her first name had no effect. It was concluded that the commonly employed low-cost tactic of expressing gratitude to customers by writing “thank you” on the check can produce a worthwhile return.
A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the effects of a favor and of liking on compliance with a request for assistance from a confederate. Liking for the confederate was manipulated, and male subjects then received a soft drink from the confederate, from the experimenter, or received no favor. Compliance with the confederate's request to purchase some raffle tickets was measured, as was liking for the confederate. The results showed that the favor increased liking for the confederate and compliance with his request, but the effect of manipulated liking was weak. Detailed ratings of the confederate as well as correlational data suggested that the relationship between favors and compliance is mediated, not by liking for the favor-doer, but by normative pressure to reciprocate.
Tip or treat: A study of factors affecting tipping behavior.Unpublished master's thesis
- J M May
May, J. M. (1978). Tip or treat: A study offactors affecting tipping behavior.
Unpublished master's thesis, Loyola University of Chicago.
Tippingpractices ofAmerican households in restaurants and other eating places: 1985-1986. Champaign, IL: Sum-mary report to the IRS under contract TIR 86-279 with the
- R B Pearl
- J Vidman
Pearl, R. B., & Vidman, J. (1988). Tippingpractices ofAmerican households in restaurants and other eating places: 1985-1986. Champaign, IL: Sum-mary report to the IRS under contract TIR 86-279 with the Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois.
Washingtin, DC: Department of Commerce
Statistical Abstracts of the United States. (1990). Washingtin, DC: Department of Commerce.
Summary report to the IRS under contract TIR 86-279 with the
- R B Pearl
- J Vidman
Pearl, R. B., & Vidman, J. (1988). Tippingpractices
of American households
in restaurants and other eating places: 1985-1986. Champaign, IL: Summary report to the IRS under contract TIR 86-279 with the Survey
Research Laboratory, University of Illinois.
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144 RIND AND STROHMETZ