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I am happy to tip based on social norms, but I despise dark patterns, and that's what's being used here to try and inflate tips. Nobody is rationalizing a larg
by nostromo 5y ago
I am happy to tip based on social norms, but I despise dark patterns, and that's what's being used here to try and inflate tips.
Nobody is rationalizing a larger tip saying, "I will tip more to avoid doing mental math." What is happening is they are busy getting out of a cab and being forced to either spend a minute or two fighting an annoying touch screen to enter the amount they'd like to tip, or to just give in and give 20-30%.
Note that suggested tip amounts did not center around the cultural norm of 20%. Instead, that is the lowest suggested tip. This is weaponized behavioral economics put to use, in this case to push up tips.
- kfarr 5y agoExactly this is a UI dark pattern that forces consumers into a specific option, not an economic utopia of helping the working class via social norms The fact this is turned into a paper like this shows the disconnect between reality and economics research. To compare and contrast, I could see a skilled growth product design expert looking at this data and say, despite an existing cultural norms of 15% tipping, through our UX design we have altered behavior away from the norm by making lower tip options difficult and time consuming to choose.
- wolpoli 5y ago> The fact this is turned into a paper like this shows the disconnect between reality and economics research. I am not even sure if this is even an economic paper. After all, Donkor is an assistant professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and not in the economics department.
- kfarr 5y agoGood catch, honestly in that case this seems like great content marketing regardless of validity.