Previous research has found that restaurant waitresses wearing flowers in their hair received higher tips. Here, the effect of hair ornamentation on responses to an explicit request for help was assessed. Two female confederates wearing a barrette with or without a flower asked 240 passersby (120 men, 120 women; apparently 30 to 40 years of age) in the street for bus fare change. The success rate was 76.7% when they wore the ornamentation and only 50.8% without the ornamentation. Both men and women more readily helped those with the hair ornamentation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
GuéguenN. (2002) Status, apparel and touch: Their joint effects on compliance to a request. North American Journal of Psychology, 4, 279–286.
2.
GuéguenN. (2012) Hair color and wages: Waitresses with blond hair have more fun. Journal of Socio-Economics, 41(4), 370–372.
GuéguenN.MeinemS.StefanJ. (2012) “Say it with flowers” …to female drivers: Hitchhikers holding a bunch of flowers and driver behavior. North American Journal of Psychology, 14, 623–628.
5.
Haviland-JonesJ.RosarioH. H.WilsonP.McGuireT. R. (2005) An environmental approach to positive emotion: Flowers. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 3, 104–132.
6.
JacobC.GuéguenN.BoulbryG.ArdicioniR. (2009) Waitresses' facial cosmetics and tipping: A field experiment. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29, 188–190.
7.
JacobC.GuéguenN.DelfosseC. (2012) She wore something in her hair: The effect of ornamentation on tipping. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 21, 414–420.
8.
LynnM. (2009) Determinants and consequences of female attractiveness and sexiness: Realistic tests with restaurant waitresses. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38, 737–745.
9.
StillmanJ. W.HensleyW. E. (1980) She wore a flower in her hair: The effect of ornamentation on nonverbal communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 1, 31–39.
