18 Gratuitous1 Gratuities2
Everybody loathes3 it, but everybody does it. A recent poll showed that 40％ of
Americans hate the practice. It seems so arbitrary4, after all. Why does a barman5 get
a tip, but not a doctor who saves lives?
In America alone, tipping is now a ＄ 16 billion-a-year industry. Consumers
acting rationally ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips
should not exist. So why do they? The conventional wisdom is that tips both reward
the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality. The better
the service, the bigger the tip.
Such explanations no doubt explain the purported6 origin of tipping-in the 16th
century, boxes in English taverns7 carried the phrase “ To Insure Promptitude8” (later
just “ TIP” ).But according to new research from Cornell University,tipping no longer
serves any useful function.
The paper analyses data from 2,547 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The
correlation9 between larger tips and better service was very weak: only a tiny part of
the variability in the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service.
Customers who rated10 a meal as “ excellent” still tipped anywhere between 8％ and
37％ of the meal price.
Tipping is better explained by culture than by economics. In America, the
custom has become institutionalized11: it is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a
service. In a New York restaurant, failing to tip at least 15％ could well mean abuse
from the waiter. Hairdressers can expect to get 15～ 20％ , the man who delivers your
groceries ＄ 2. In Europe, tipping is less common; in many restaurants,
discretionary12 tipping is being replaced by a standard service charge. In many Asian
countries, tipping has never really caught on13 at all.
How to account for14 these national differences? Look no further than
psychology. According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell paper's co-author, countries in
which people are more extrovert15, sociable or neurotic16 tend to tip
relieves17 anxiety about being served by strangers. And, says Mr Lynn, “ in America,
where people are outgoing and expressive, tipping is about social approval. If you tip
badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off18.” Icelanders, by
contrast, do not usually tip--a measure of their introversion19, no doubt.
While such explanations may be crude, the hard truth seems to be that tipping
does not work. It does not benefit the customer. Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it
actually incentivise20 the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to monitor and assess
his staff. Service people should “ just be paid a decent wage” may actually make
economic sense.
没有道理的小费
人人讨厌它，但人人这样做。最近一项民意测验表明，40％的美国人憎恨付
小费。毕竟，这种做法好像毫无道理。为什么酒吧招待能拿到小费，而救人生命
的医生却得不到呢？
仅在美国，小费这一行当每年的总额高达 160 亿美元。合理消费的人们在为
得到的某项服务必须付费外，不该再掏腰包。小费现象不应该存在。那么，为什
么它一直流行呢？公众的一般看法是，小费既是对优质服务的回报，又可以减轻
不平等地位的那种不舒服感。服务得越好，得到的小费就越多。
这些说法毫无疑问地解释了有关小费起源的传说。在 16 世纪，英国小酒馆
里都放着一个匣子，上面写有一条短语“确保快捷”，后来这 3 个英文词的首字母
就组成了“小费”一词。但据康奈尔大学新的调查结果，小费现已不再具有任何实
用的功能。
这份调查报告分析了在 20 家不同餐馆用餐的 2547 组食客支付小费的数据。
较多小费与良好服务之间的联系是非常微弱的：小费的多寡中只有很小一部分同
服务质量有关。称赞饭菜“味道好极了”的顾客支付的小费仍然在餐费的 8％至 37
％之间。
小费现象最好从文化角度来解释，而不是从经济学角度。在美国，这种习俗
已经制度化：人们把它看成是一项服务的认可价格的一部分。在纽约的餐馆里，
没有支付至少 15％小费的顾客很可能会遭到侍者的辱骂。理发师可以得到 15％～
20％的小费，送外卖的可以得到两美元。在欧洲，付小费没有那么普遍；在许多
餐馆，标准服务价格取代了随意支付的小费。在许多亚洲国家，付小费从未真正
流行起来。
如何解释这些国与国之间的差别？那就从心理学的角度来看一看吧。据康奈
尔大学的那份调查报告的作者之一迈克尔·林恩说，其国民性格较外向、爱交际
或易激动的国家，往往小费付得较多。付小费可以减轻接受陌生人服务的不安心
理。林恩先生说，“在美国，人们开朗大方，喜欢表现，支付小费是社会认可的。
如果你掏的小费少，人们就会看轻你。多掏小费是炫耀、表现自己的机会。”相
比之下，冰岛人通常不付小费，这无疑体现了他们的内向性格。
尽管这些解释也许不很成熟，而事实看起来就是，支付小费并不能起到什么
作用。它对顾客没有什么好处。在餐馆里，它实际上既不能起到鼓励侍者的作用，
也不能帮助餐馆经理监督和评估手下职员。从经济角度而言，只有对服务人员“支
付体面的工资”可能才有意义。
[]adj.无理由的，不必要的
[]n.小费，赏钱
[]vt.厌恶，憎恨
[]adj.任意性的
[]n.酒吧间男招待
[]adj.传说的，谣传的
[]n.小酒店，小旅馆，客栈
[]n.敏捷，迅速
[]n.联系
[]vt.认为，评估
.制度化的
[]adj.自由决定的
流行起来，被人接受
[]vi.(与 for 连用)作出解释
[]adj.外倾性的
[]adj.易激动的
[]vt.减轻
炫耀，表现自己
[]n.内倾性
[]vt.刺激，鼓励
