Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> Donkor found that around 60% of people chose a tip from the menu, indicating that most passengers preferred not to have to calculate a tip in their heads.

That assumption seems to be quite a stretch. Naively I would think that major drivers for this behavior are saving time and comparatively terrible custom tip experience.

Personally I love doing mental math, but still use preselected tip in situations with external pressure. For example when there is a line of people behind me in a coffee shop or I am trying to get out of taxi fast so the driver is not waiting on me.




Yeah. There's a leap in logic there. There's MANY unfounded assumptions in this article that steer it towards the author's predetermined conclusion.


Can you pinpoint these "MANY unfounded assumptions" in the research paper? I read the paper but I don't see where the author is making these assumptions.


Just to be clear, the research article has no such assumption. This is the PR person at Stanford interpreting things on their own.


It think it's telling that most customers picked 20%, the lowest on the menu. I would conclude that the menu presents a nudge towards establishing 20% as the lowest socially acceptable tip. Selecting a custom tip lower than 20% runs the risk of upsetting the driver, possibly leading to a verbal or physical altercation.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: