The Parrot Effect

Abstract

A study of tipping behavior in the Netherlands found that mimicry improved tips. When waitresses repeated customers' orders verbatim, they received larger tips than when they merely acknowledged or paraphrased the orders. Since restaurants in the Netherlands add service charges to patrons' checks, the size of any tip that customers leave can be taken as a reasonably firm indication of the extent to which customers were pleased with the service. The servers in the study made sure that customers knew the order had been received regardless of whether they repeated back the order, in one instance by writing the order in the customers’ presence. Mimicry still brought larger tips than did either an oral paraphrase or written acknowledgment. The findings lend credence to the concept that people feel more comfortable with those who behave as they do and showthat people do not generally take conscious notice that they are being mimicked.