The impacts of different types of cuisines and restaurants on gratuities

Abstract

This study adopts social stigma theory and examines whether biases toward different types of foods and restaurants exist and, consequently, whether such biases influence gratuities. A 2 × 3 experiment was conducted in order to compare the relative impacts on tip size among samples from scenarios featuring different types of cuisines and different types of restaurants while controlling for food quality and service quality. With a focus on tipping behaviors and the restaurant industry, this study confirms that diners do have stereotypes in regard to cuisine that represents different cultures. Gender and income also played moderating roles in our findings.