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Restaurant Tipping: Free‐Riding, Social Acceptance, and Gender Differences 1
Author(s) -
Boyes William J.,
Stewart Mounts William,
Sowell Clifford
Publication year - 2004
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.1559-1816.2004.tb01995.x
Subject(s) - discretion , social psychology , social acceptance , psychology , public relations , law , political science
The practice of paying gratuities for services is a worldwide custom. Tipping is found only in some professions, which suggests that it serves to increase the efficiency of specific kinds of exchanges. The literature accepts the view that monitoring of employees by customers appears to be the logical rationale for the practice of tipping. This can be seen in that gratuities are paid at the discretion of consumers after they receive the services for which they are paying. However, it does not explain why, given the voluntary aspect of tipping, rational people would not free‐ride on the tipping of others. We found that both men and women free‐ride in their tipping behavior. Yet, we also found that men are more influenced by social acceptance or approval in their tipping behavior than are women.