Your pound of flesh, sir
In restaurants in the US, customers pay out about $26bn in tips every year. And this is only one corner of the hospitality industry, where it is customary also to tip bartenders, bellboys, casino croupiers, chambermaids, doormen, parking valets, washroom attendants and others. But how do you know, in America or elsewhere, whether or when to tip?
Academics who study tipping have identified 33 jobs for which remuneration includes tips. Fittingly, arguably the world's leading authority on the psychology of tipping is himself a former bartender, bus boy and waiter. Michael Lynn is now professor of consumer behaviour at Cornell University in New York. He believes that tipping should be of interest to economists and psychologists, because it doesn't appear to make any economic sense, and may instead lie firmly in the realm of psychology. Few people aspire to pay more than is strictly necessary for goods and services, yet in tipping they do so, often quite voluntarily. So, what accounts for this largesse?
While some claim that tipping was known as far back as the Roman era, and could be even older, the most widely accepted theory, according to Ofer Azar, an economist at Northwestern University in Illinois, is that tipping became established as a social custom in 16th-century England. Brass urns with the inscription "To Insure Promptitude" were placed in coffee houses and, later, in pubs. Customers tipped in advance by putting money in these urns. Another theory is that the word comes from the Dutch "tippen", which means to tap, and refers to the sound of a coin being used to draw a waiter's attention.
Azar claims that in 16th-century England, visitors to private homes were expected to give sums of money (known as vails) at the end of their visit for service given by the host's servants beyond their usual duties.
Although vails began as compensation for extra services or effort, they later became expected. There is even a record of one master sharing his vails with his servants and giving large parties in order to supplement his income. An ungenerous tipper could find his horse injured or hear a footman mutter that on the next visit he would receive a plate of gravy on his breeches. Some people avoided visiting their friends because of the high costs involved.
The vails system became so hated that groups of masters attempted to abolish it, and at a meeting of the gentry and nobility in Edinburgh in 1760, agreement to do so was reached. An attempt to do the same in London in 1764 resulted in disturbances, in which servants broke lamps and windows. But vails expected not only for special services or effort no longer provided an incentive for better service; the givers saw them as an extra cost and annoying custom, and deep tensions soon entered this strange practice that we now take for granted.
Today, economists view tipping as anomalous behaviour that challenges fundamental assumptions about the rationality of economic man. This is because tipping after a service has been provided cannot affect the quality of the service.
This view is reinforced by research conducted by Professor Lynn. He has analysed data involving 2,547 dining parties at 20 restaurants, and established scientifically what many waiters have long suspected - that there is only a very weak relationship between the size of a tip and the quality of service provided. It therefore makes little sense for a waiter to work harder in order to obtain a tip.
Michael Conlin, an economist at Syracuse University in New York state, investigated tipping by surveying 39 restaurants in Houston over 112 sessions, each lasting four hours. Conlin investigated whether adjusting for the number of courses in a meal produced a link between the quality of service and the size of a tip. (The idea being that the more courses to a meal, the more work the waiter has to do, and so the more information the customer has with which to evaluate the quality of service.) However, Conlin found that the number of courses had no effect on the size of the tip.
Perhaps, then, regular customers to the same establishment tip according to service quality, in order to ensure better service when they return. Indeed, tipping begins, according to the game theory (the branch of mathematics and economics where anticipation of the move of a protagonist is a vital part of current behaviour), to make some kind of economic sense for the regularly returning customer, because both customer and waiter are predicting the future behaviour they will encounter.
However, the research again finds that regular customers do not vary tips in accordance with service quality. Also, diners themselves admit that how much they tip is not affected by whether they visit an establishment often or never again. It would seem that tippers are poor game theorists.
Another theory is that tipping exists to compensate for market failure. Because it is the customer, rather than the waiters' employer, who is in a better position to observe the quality of service, the best results would be achieved if a service contract between diner and server were to exist. Because this is not very practicable, the "norm" of restaurant tipping serves as a substitute.
The economics of tipping is rendered even more complex by Lynn's scientific study of hotel bellboys, which established that the bellboys could double the size of their tips if they performed not only their usual duties but, in addition, merely informed guests how to operate the television and the air conditioning, opened curtains in the room and offered to bring the guests ice.
Either tipping is more strongly related to service for bellboys than it is for waiters (with whom the relationship is more extended) or hotel guests are, when they arrive, so grateful to be somewhere they can rest that they transfer their gratitude to the bellboy.
All of this suggests that tipping exists for psychological rather than economic reasons. The display of wealth, status and power, the seeking of social approval, conformity, a (forlorn) hope for future, better service, and guilt over inequitable relationships are all theories put forward to explain why we tip.
Supporting these psychological ideas is Lynn's analysis of which countries have widespread tipping as a cultural norm compared with those that don't. While in countries such as the US, Egypt, Greece, Portugal and Argentina it is customary to tip a wide variety of different service professionals, in countries such as Japan, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand it is customary to tip for relatively few services.
Tipping is also less prevalent in countries where power differences between people are less culturally acceptable. These findings suggest that the custom of tipping functions to reduce consumers' anxieties about the service relationship, but paradoxically, tipping itself can enhance unease about the unequal nature of that relationship.
Lynn also found that the greater value citizens of a culture place on status/prestige and recognition, the more prevalent tipping will be, affording an opportunity for displays of such qualities in a person. In case all this gives tipping a bad name, it is worth noting that the research also shows that in countries with high "anti-social" scores, tipping is less common, so it can be associated with warmer, fuzzy feelings too.
Studying tipping has also provided valuable information about consumer behaviour if you're on the receiving end. For example, the mere presence of a credit card logo on the tray on which a restaurant bill is presented is enough to significantly increase tips. It's the old trick that credit cards allow consumers to postpone payment for goods and services, and therefore creates the illusion of increased spending power.
Lynn, whose website includes a downloadable booklet on how to get bigger tips, points out how vital it is for service personnel to stand out from the crowd and be noticed - so that customers perceive them as an individual person, rather than a faceless member of staff. He recommends wearing something unusual. In one study, waitresses' tips increased by 17 per cent if they wore flowers in their hair.
And it's not just what you wear. It even helps to be positive about the weather. Sunny weather puts people in a good mood, and people in a good mood leave bigger tips than those in a bad mood. Since even the prospect of sunny weather elevates people's moods, servers who live where the weather is highly variable can increase tips by telling their customers that sunny weather is on the way.
Bruce Rind of Temple University, Pennsylvania, and David Strohmetz of Monmouth University, New Jersey, asked a waitress at a mid- priced Italian restaurant in New Jersey to write a weather forecast on the back of some of her bills, but to omit the message from others. The favourable weather forecast read: "The weather is supposed to be really good tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the day!"
The waitress earned, on average, 19 per cent more in tips from those customers to whom she gave the positive weather forecast. Perhaps they just liked her friendly approach. Indeed, other research suggests waiters can reliably increase their gratuities by (1) giving their names to customers; (2) squatting next to customers' tables; (3) touching their customers; and (4) giving after-dinner mints to diners.
At the heart of the psychology of tipping is the assumption that it hinges on the idea that the person providing the service has control over the quality of the service. However, the research strongly suggests that there is little in the way of a relationship between the actual provision of the service and the tip; but even more intriguingly, we only tip when it doesn't really matter. After all, if it did, as it would if it were brain surgery we were purchasing, we would expect the best service to be included in the price.
Now, if you think you know what to do next time you're in a restaurant, whether as customer or waiter, here's one that has the researchers still scratching their heads. Another of Lynn's studies involved the server drawing a happy face on the bill. On average this increased a waitress's tip by 18 per cent, but decreased a waiter's by 9 per cent.
There isn't, to my knowledge, any research that shows the effect of a brain surgeon drawing a happy face on her bill, regardless of the outcome of the operation.
Raj Persaud is Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry at Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London, and author of "From the Edge of the Couch - Bizarre Psychiatric Cases and What they Teach us About Ourselves", published by Bantam Press. 小费大学问 ( 下 )
心理原因
所有这一切都表明，付小费行为之所以存在，是出于心理而非经济原因。显示财富、地位和权力，寻求社会认可，遵从习惯，对未来 ( 渺茫 ) 的希望，希望得到更好的服务，以及对服务双方不平等关系的内疚，这些理论都被用于解释我们为什么会付小费。
林恩教授分析了在哪些国家付小费已成为一种文化习俗而广泛存在，并与其它没有给小费习惯的国家进行比较，这一分析结果验证了以上有关心理原因的想法。在美国、埃及、希腊、葡萄牙和阿根廷等国，人们有为多种不同服务支付小费的习惯，而在日本、挪威、荷兰和新西兰，人们只为相对较少的服务支付小费。
此外，在权力差别不太为文化传统所接受的国家中，付小费也太不普遍。这些分析结论表明，支付小费可帮助客人缓解服务关系中的不安。不过，与此矛盾的是，给小费本身就会增加不安，因为这种关系在本质上终究是不平等的。
林恩教授还发现，某种文化的居民对地位 / 威望和赞誉越重视，付小费的行为就越普遍，因为它给人们提供了展示这些个人质素的机会。为了防止该结论使付小费行为背负恶名，有必要指出研究结果还显示，在社会交往较为保守的国家中，付小费这一做法也相对不普遍。可见，小费还与热情和愉快的心理感受有关。
实用贴士
此外，如果你是小费接受方，那么对小费现象的研究还可为你提供顾客行为方面的宝贵信息。比如，如果餐厅服务员把账单放在托盘上递给顾客，而托盘上有一个信用卡标识，就会让顾客多掏不少小费。信用卡允许消费者推迟支付产品和服务，这一古老的把戏给顾客造成自己购买力增加的错觉。
在林恩教授的个人网站上，有一本讲述如何才能得到更多小费的册子供人下载。林恩教授还指出，服务业人员做到与众不同并被客户注意非常关键。因为如果做到这点，顾客就会将他看成一个独立的人，而不仅仅是又一名无个性的员工。他建议服务人员在装束上要别出心裁。在一项研究中，女服务员如果在头发上戴花，小费就会增加 17% 。
不仅是装束，对天气做出积极评价也会有所帮助。阳光明媚的天气使人们心情愉快，而人们在心情好时付的小费就会比心情不好时多。由于对晴朗天气的期望会使人们的心情变好，因此，生活在天气变化无常地区的服务人员，如果告诉顾客天气将很快转晴，也会增加小费收入。
宾夕法尼亚州坦普尔大学 (Temple University) 的布鲁斯?林德 (Bruce Rind) 和新泽西州蒙茅斯大学 (Monmouth University) 的大卫?斯托梅茨 (David Strohmetz) 让在新泽西州某中档意大利餐厅工作的一名女服务员在一些账单背面写上天气预报，而另一些则不写。这则天气预报写道：“明天天气应该会很好。祝您愉快！”
当这位女服务员把预示好天气的天气预报交给顾客后，她的小费平均多得了 19% 。可能顾客只是欣赏她这种友好的方式。的确，其它研究表明，采取以下方式肯定有助于餐厅服务员多收小费： (1) 告诉顾客自己的名字； (2) 在顾客桌子旁边蹲下； (3) 轻轻触碰顾客； (4) 为顾客提供饭后薄荷糖。
顾客付小费心理的核心，是他们认为服务提供方控制着服务质量。然而，林恩教授的研究明确显示，实际提供的服务与小费之间几乎不存在任何关系。然而，更有意思的是，其实我们只在服务并不怎么重要的情况下才付小费。如果我们需要的服务真的很重要，比如脑外科手术，那么我们就会期待所付的价钱已经包括最佳服务了。
至此，如果你觉得自己已经知道下次在餐厅应该怎么做（无论是作为顾客还是服务员），这里还有一件令研究人员百思不得其解的事情。在林恩教授从事的另一项研究中，他要求服务员在账单上画一张笑脸。结果是，女服务员得到的小费平均多了 18% ，而男服务员平均减少了 9% 。
据我所知，还没有哪项研究显示，抛开手术结果不论，脑外科医生在病人账单上画一张笑脸会收到何种效果。
拉吉?佩尔绍德 (Raj Persaud) 是伦敦 Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals 从事精神病学公共认识研究的教授。他还撰写了由班坦出版社 (Bantam Press) 出版的《从长榻边讲起
