"As I stood staring at the screen, the tip buttons-20%, 25%, even 50%-blinked back at me like a test I hadn't studied for. Not knowing the answer, I felt a jolt of panic. A line had formed behind me, and I could practically feel the eyes on my back. In my mind, they were all silently judging, waiting to see which button I'd hit. I quickly looked for the button for "no tip," but, under pressure, guilt made the decision for me. I tapped 20%."
"I was at a gas station, where I had pumped my own gas, grabbed my own water and candy, and walked myself to the counter-yet somehow, I was being asked for a tip. It feels like, sometime over the past few years, tipping has quietly expanded into every corner of daily life. Drive-thru windows? This is new. But self-checkout kiosks? This is where things get confusing. Screens spin around before you've had a chance to process, and social pressure joins in."
Tipping has expanded into self-service contexts such as gas stations, drive-thru windows, and self-checkout kiosks, generating pressure to tip where no meaningful service is provided. Quick screens and visible tip buttons create social visibility and urgency, triggering guilt and fear of judgment. Empirical research shows tip size correlates weakly with actual service quality and correlates strongly with social norms and pressure. As a result, tipping increasingly feels mandatory and performative rather than voluntary gratitude. Consumers face repeated prompts to conform, and small design choices on payment interfaces amplify the expectation to tip.
Read at Psychology Today
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