20, 25 or 30 Percent? The Psychology of the Tip Screen

You took the muffin out of the case yourself, and now a screen is swiveling toward you with 3 big buttons: 20, 25 or 30 percent. In 2009, at a grocery store in suburban Boston, up to a third of shoppers switched doors just to avoid a bell ringer who looked at them and asked. Here's what that experiment, 13 million New York City taxi rides and a 2023 Pew survey reveal about the 2 forces behind tip-screen guilt, how the pressure can backfire, and how to walk up to the counter already decided. Chapters 0:00 A bell ringer at the door 1:06 Force 1: the menu 1:34 13 million taxi rides 2:08 Defaults talk 2:23 Is 20% normal for a muffin? 2:56 Force 2: the ask 3:16 Who opens the door? 3:35 Dodging the ask 3:51 Both forces at the counter 4:15 When being watched backfires 4:40 Pushing back on the buttons 5:02 Set your default first Sources Andreoni, Rao & Trachtman, 2017, "Avoiding the Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving", Journal of Political Economy: https://doi.org/10.1086/691703 Andreoni, Rao & Trachtman, 2011, "Avoiding The Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving", NBER Working Paper 17648: https://www.nber.org/papers/w17648 Thaler & Sunstein, 2008, "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness", Yale University Press Haggag & Paci, 2014, "Default Tips", American Economic Journal: Applied Economics: https://doi.org/10.1257/app.6.3.1 (author PDF: http://www.kareemhaggag.com/f/Default...) McKenzie, Liersch & Finkelstein, 2006, "Recommendations Implicit in Policy Defaults", Psychological Science: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2... Pew Research Center, 2023, "Tipping Culture in America: Public Sees a Changed Landscape": https://www.pewresearch.org/2023/11/0... DellaVigna, List & Malmendier, 2012, "Testing for Altruism and Social Pressure in Charitable Giving", The Quarterly Journal of Economics: https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr050 Warren & Hanson, 2025 (online 2024), "Tipping privacy: The detrimental impact of observation on non-tip responses", Journal of Business Research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.202... The skits, the muffin and the talking tip screen are made up; the bell-ringer, taxi, door-to-door and brewpub studies and the Pew survey are real. Doodle Psych is for education and curiosity, not professional advice. #tipping #psychology #behavioraleconomics