Do you know how to tip?

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Reposted to HaiCi for sharing by HaiCi friends. Do you know how to tip? You're out to dinner. The food was delicious and the service was fine. You decide to leave a big fat tip - why? The answer may not be as simple as you think. When you eat out and the food is delicious and the service is attentive, you decide to leave a big fat tip - why? The answer may not be as simple as you think. Tipping, psychologists have found, is rarely just about service. Instead, studies have shown tipping can be influenced by psychological reactions to an array of factors ranging from the waiter's choice of words to how they carry themselves while taking orders to the bill's total. Even how much waiters remind customers of themselves can determine how much change they pocket by the end of the night. Psychologists have found that tipping isn't just about service. Research shows that people's tipping is influenced by their psychological reactions to a range of factors. These factors range from the server's words to their demeanor at checkout. Even the extent to which a waiter reminds customers of himself determines how much tips he gets at the end of the day. "Previous studies have shown that mimicry enhances positive feelings for the mimicker," wrote Rick van Baaren, a social psychology professor at the University of Nikmegen in the Netherlands, in a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.: “Previous research has shown that imitation can increase people's liking of the imitator. These studies suggest that imitators are more generous toward those who imitate them. ” To detect the benefit of copying the customer, van Baaren and his colleagues surveyed staff in American-style restaurants in southern Holland. Among a group of 59 waitstaff, van Baaren requested that half respond to diner's meal orders with a positive phrase such as, "Coming up!" To understand the benefits of imitating consumers, van Baaren and his colleagues surveyed employees at American-style restaurants in the southern Netherlands. In a group of 59 waiters, Van Baalen asked half of them to say to orderers, "Here you go! ”Wait for a clear answer. Those in the other half were instructed to repeat the orders and preferences back to the customers. Van Baaren then compared their take-home. The results were clear -it pays to imitate your customer. The copycat waiters earned almost double the amount of tip than the other group. The other half of the waiters were asked to repeat the customer's order and preferences. Van Baalen then compared the tips they received, and the results were clear — imitating customers was good for the waiters. The waiters who imitated customers received almost twice as much in tips as the other group of waiters. Leonard Green and Joel Myerson, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis, found the generosity of a tipper may be limited by their bill. After compiling data from nearly 1,000 tips left for waiters, cab drivers and hair stylists, they found that tip percentages in all three areas dropped as customers' bills went up. Psychologists Leonard and Joel Myerson of Washington University in St. Louis found that the generosity of tippers may be affected by the amount of their bills. By compiling data on nearly 1,000 tips received by waiters, taxi drivers and hairstylists, they found that the proportion of tips in all three areas fell as the amount of a customer's bill rose. In fact, tip percentages appear to plateau when bills topped 100 and a bill for 200 garnered the worker no bigger percentage tip than a bill for 100. A $200 purchase is no more likely to result in a tip than a $100 purchase. Why? Green has his theories, including one he attributes to an old Woody Allen saying: "Eighty percent of success in life is showing up." Why? Green has his own theories, one of which he summarizes as a Woody Allen quote: “80% of success in life is self-expression. ” "That's also a point of tipping," Green says. "You have to give a little extra to the cab driver for being there to pick you up and something to the waiter for being there to serve you. If they weren't there you'd never get any service. So I think part of the idea of ​​a tip is for just being there." Green said: “This is also important when it comes to tipping. You have to tip a little extra for the taxi driver who picks you up and the waiter who serves you. If they weren't there, you wouldn't get any service, so I think part of tipping is because of their presence. ” Green explains since everyone would earn the "just being there" tip, it's inevitable that portion would make up a larger percentage of smaller bills.