Youre out to dinner. The food was delicious and the service was fine. You decide to leave a big fat tip—why the answer may not be as simple as you think.

當(dāng)你在外面吃飯的時候,食物可口,服務(wù)周到,于是你決定留下一筆豐厚的小費——這是為什么呢?答案也許不像你想得那么簡單。

Tipping, psychologists have found, is rarely just about service. Instead, studies have shown tipping can be influenced by psychological reactions to an array of factors ranging from the waiters choice of words to how they carry themselves while taking orders to the bills total. Even how much waiters remind customers of themselves can determine how much change they pocket by the end of the night.

心理學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn),給小費不僅僅是因為服務(wù)。研究表明人們給小費會受到對一系列因素產(chǎn)生的心理反應(yīng)所影響。這些因素包括從服務(wù)員的措辭到結(jié)賬時他們的舉止。甚至連服務(wù)員能在多大程度上讓顧客想到自己也決定了他一天下來能夠拿到多少小費。

“Previous studies have shown that mimicry enhances positive feelings for the mimicker,” wrote Rick van Barren, a social psychology professor at the University of Nikmegen in the Netherlands, in a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. “These studies indicate that people who are being mimicked become more generous toward the person who mimics them.”

荷蘭Nikmegen大學(xué)的社會心理學(xué)教授里克?范?巴倫在《實驗社會心理學(xué)》雜志上最近發(fā)表的一項研究中寫到:“以前的研究已經(jīng)表明模仿能夠增加人們對模仿者的好感。這些研究表明被模仿者對模仿自己的人更慷慨大方?！?/p>

To detect the benefit of copying the customer, van Barren and his colleagues surveyed staff in American-styled restaurants in southern Holland. Among a group of 59 wait staff, van Barren requested that half respond to diners meal orders with a positive phrase such as, “Coming up!”

為了弄清模仿消費者的好處,范?巴倫和他的同事們對荷蘭南部美國風(fēng)味餐館的員工們進行了調(diào)查。在一組總共59名服務(wù)員中,范?巴倫要求他們中的一半跟點餐者說“就來!”等明確的答復(fù)。

Those in the other half were instructed to repeat the orders and preferences back to the customers. Van Barren then compared their take-home. The results were clear—it pays to imitate your customer. The copycat waiters earned almost double the amount of tip than the other group.

另一半服務(wù)員則被要求把顧客點的餐和喜好重復(fù)一遍。范?巴倫隨后比較了他們所得的小費,結(jié)果很清楚——模仿顧客對服務(wù)員有好處。模仿顧客的服務(wù)員獲得的小費差不多是另一組服務(wù)員所得的兩倍。

Leonard Green and Joel Myerson, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis, found the generosity of a tipper may be limited by their bill. After compiling data from nearly 1,000 tips left for waiters, cab drivers and hair stylists, they found that tip percentages in all three areas dropped as customers bills went up.

圣路易斯華盛頓大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家萊昂納德和喬爾?邁爾森發(fā)現(xiàn),給小費者是否慷慨可能會受到賬單金額的影響。通過匯總服務(wù)員、出租車司機和發(fā)型師收到的近1000份小費的數(shù)據(jù),他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這三個領(lǐng)域中小費的比例都隨著顧客賬單金額的上升而下降。

In fact, tip percentages appear to plateau when bills topped 100 and a bill for 200 garnered the worker no bigger percentage tip than a bill for 100.

當(dāng)賬單超過100美元后,小費的比例變化不明顯。一筆200美元的消費對于服務(wù)員來說獲得小費的比例并不比100美元的消費高。

Why? Green has his theories, including one he attributes to an old Woody Allen saying: “Eighty percent of success in life is showing up.”

這是為什么呢?格林有他自己的理論,其中的一條他總結(jié)為伍迪?艾倫的名言:“生活中80%的成功是自我表現(xiàn)?！?/p>

“Thats also a point of tipping,” Green says. “You have to give a little extra to the cab driver for being there to pick you up and something to the waiter for being there to serve you. If they werent there youd never get any service. So I think part of the idea of a tip is for just being there.”

格林說:“這一點對于給小費來說也很重要。對于接你的出租車司機和為你服務(wù)的服務(wù)員,你不得不給一點額外的小費。如果他們不存在,你就得不到任何服務(wù),所以我認為給小費一部分是因為他們的存在?！?/p>

Green explains since everyone would earn the “just being there” tip, its inevitable that portion would make up a larger percentage of smaller bills.

格林解釋說,既然每個人都會獲得“因為存在”的那部分小費,所以小費在較小金額的消費中必然占較大的比例。