The give and take of tipping

American Demographics, Feb, 1997 by Tibbett L. Speer

The share of adults who tip parking valets based on service is lower, at 32 percent, perhaps because its harder to judge its quality. Getting the right car back without any noticeable dents is probably sufficient for most. People are nearly as likely to tip parking valets because they feel such workers depend on the money to make a living, at 30 percent.

Helping people make a living is the second-biggest reason for tipping all sorts of service providers. Its the number-one reason cited by people with incomes of $50,000 or more when it comes to tipping parking valets, luggage handlers, and taxi/limo drivers. On the other hand, low-income people are most likely to say they don't tip at all because they think bills should reflect the full price of services. One in five adults who makes use of maid service in motels and hotels agrees. Virtually no one feels this way about waiters and waitresses, however, and even low-income people almost never stiff waitstaff.

Some respondents tip primarily because they feet it is expected of them, ranging from @ percent of those who tip maids to 22 percent of those who tip taxi/limo drivers. A few hold to the "efficiency" theory that economist Bodvarsson endorses; 8 percent of those who tip bartenders and hairstylists deliberately do so in the expectation that they will get good service next time around.

HAPPY FACES AND SUNNY SKIES

Sometimes tipping practices appear to bear no relation to either the tipper's personality or the service they receive. In a series of offbeat experiments, Temple University psychology professor Bruce Rind and his students tried to discern what external factors might modify tipping behavior. In one study at a campus restaurant, they provided food servers with stacks of index cards. Upon completing table service for a diner or diners, the servers randomly looked at a card. Based on what it told them, they drew a happy face on the check or not.

Customers apparently like happy faces, but only if drawn by a woman. The waitress in the study saw her tips increase 5 percentage points with the happy-face technique. But the waiter learned to repress his emotions. Customers cut 3 percentage points from his tips when he artistically enhanced their bill. "It's gender-inappropriate," explains Rind.

Another study involved a student working as a room server in an Atlantic City hotel. Many rooms in the hotel offered little or no outside view. When guests received their breakfast tray, they often asked what the weather was like. Tip size correlated with beliefs about climactic conditions as follows: rainy, 19, percent of the bill; cloudy, 24 percent; partly sunny, 26 percent; sunny, 29 percent.

Is it coincidence that good weather garners more tips? Apparently not. The researchers then manipulated the information so the student servers "weather report" reflected whatever was written on the index card he'd randomly selected from the stack in his pocket. The choices were: warm and sunny; warm and rainy; cold and sunny; or cold and rainy. The tips changed very little in relation to temperature. But they varied greatly according to sky conditions. Sunshine coaxed out several more percentage points of cash.