Scott BresslerFor many people, tipping is a natural reflex, but how much do you actually end up spending? Two Washington University psychology researchers have started to crack the tipping code, finding that people tend to tip more for smaller bills.
Professors of psychology Leonard Green and Joel Myerson studied tipping as a follow-up on another research project. “It’s an interesting area.the question why do people tip in this country. There is no single answer,” said Green.
Tipping in the United States also differs from other parts of the world where tipping is not the norm. “It makes you wonder why we tip in this country,” said Myerson.
Before they turned to tipping, Green and Myerson studied how people value rewards over periods of time. For example, they found that people would rather take $25 up front rather than waiting a year to receive $100. Green attributes this finding to the fact that people often discount the future.
Green and Myerson explained that this “magnitude effect” could explain desires such as playing the lottery, where people try to get all of the money up front, as well as issues of self-control.
“One of the things we found was that with the delayed reward, you discount at a certain rate.larger delayed amounts are discounted proportionally less than smaller delayed amounts.”
This “magnitude effect'” seemed to fit into the arena of tipping because the size of the bill influences how much people are willing to tip.
“The question we asked was, do you leave the same amount [proportionately] of tip on a $20 bill compared to a $200 bill?” said Green. “What they found is that people leave a larger percentage tip with a smaller bill than with a larger bill. Although this would still be considered the magnitude effect.it’s a different mechanism [than for discounting].”
Senior Danielle Roth, who works as a waitress at Fitz’s on the Loop, found this to be the case. “We can have bills that are only $15 for two people. People might leave four dollars which is definitely more than 15 percent but if [the bill is] $50 people will only leave 15 [percent].”
The demographic of the tipper does not have a significant effect on the results, but both researchers predicted that people who have worked at restaurants probably tend to tip a little bit more. Because the demographic was not narrowed down, they looked at tipping in different areas including restaurants, cabs and beauty parlors, and found that the same conclusions were seen across the board.
Green and Myerson also found out that people, on average, tend to tip a little less, percentage-wise, on cabs than at restaurants and beauty parlors. In general, the average seems to be around 15 percent. Roth agreed, citing her experiences at Fitz’s.
Senior Suzy Goldenkranz said she usually tips “15 percent base and 20 percent if [the service] is good.”
Roth explained that she usually gets more of a tip from University students if they know she is a peer. “Wash. U. students never tip below 15 percent – the standard. But some tend to be particularly generous.”
Green explained that he has a theory that, at restaurants, it would benefit the server for everyone to get individual checks, and thus tip individually, leading to a higher total tip.
Roth said that while providing individual checks took more time, the rewards were greater. “In terms of tipping percentages I would tend to say that’s true. They’re more likely to leave $2 [for individual checks].”