The New Normal: The Impact of Social Influence Tactics on Non-Normative Consumer Tipping Behavior

Abstract

Research has extensively studied mechanisms motivating restaurant tipping, while also examining ways servers and other service workers can elicit higher tip amounts. This study examines the psychological social influence tactics of the even-a-penny paradigm, charitylinking, and norm-setting in tipping environments that lack a prescribed social norm for tipping behavior (non-normative environments). The hypotheses of the present study state that the three social influence tactics will be successful in increasing average tip amount as well as tipping frequency when compared to a control condition and a cash only payment condition (that lacks a social influence manipulation). Results indicate that the charity-linking condition elicited the highest average tip amount, followed by an additional significant increase in average tip amount when looking at the norm-setting condition compared to the controls. No significant results were found in regards to tip frequency. Implications of these findings as well as suggested areas of future research are also discussed.