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Effect of Beliefs About Future Weather Conditions on Restaurant Tipping
Author(s) -
Rind Bruce,
Strohmetz David
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb00168.x
Subject(s) - nothing , psychology , affect (linguistics) , power (physics) , social psychology , meteorology , advertising , environmental science , business , geography , physics , philosophy , communication , epistemology , quantum mechanics
Research has shown that favorable weather is associated with increased tipping and that beliefs that weather is favorable can produce higher tips. In the current study, the possibility that beliefs about future weather conditions would affect tipping was experimentally examined. A server in a midscale restaurant wrote on the back of customers’ checks either nothing, that the weather would be good the next day, or that the weather would not be so good the next day. Compared to writing nothing ( M = 18.73%) or giving an unfavorable forecast ( M = 18.18%), giving a favorable forecast ( M = 22.21%) resulted in significantly higher tip percentages. The power of beliefs, irrespective of their veridicality, regarding the state of atmospheric conditions in affecting human response is discussed.