The effects of injunctive and descriptive tipping norms on tipping behavior and motives

Abstract

Although tipping is widely considered to be normative behavior, normative influences on tipping have been under studied. A hypothetical scenario experiment examined the effects on tipping of both descriptive and injunctive tipping norms as well as their interactions with one another and with tipping motives. Results support the normative nature of tipping – stronger injunctive tipping norms increased both the likelihood of tipping counterworkers and (at least sometimes) the size of tips given to them. However, local descriptive tipping norms had small if any main-effects on the tipping of counterworkers, probably because they decreased respondents’ perceptions that the worker deserved more tips, that their tips would be noticed, and that their tips would encourage others to tip at the same time that they increased respondents’ feelings of being pressured to tip. These and other findings in this study demonstrate the complex nature of normative influences on tipping as well as the need for more research on those influences.