this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Any difference in behaviour between North Americans (who do tip) and foreigners (who don’t) is by definition economically irrational behaviour, because economics predicts that a rational consumer would seek to pay as little as possible. The actual behaviour may be rational from a social perspective (social pressures, signalling, etc) but it is economically irrational to pay more than required.

Tipping in this way functions no differently from hidden fees in that consumers do not accurately take them into account when purchasing, even when the information is publicly available and widely known. That foreigners do not tip is a cultural (irrational) difference, not a calculated difference. In some sense it’s no different than other cultural differences that annoy locals, such as public spitting or littering.

As for broader trends in terms of how often people eat out, those tend to be economically rational. People don’t tend to go deeply into debt to continue eating out when they can’t afford it, though there is likely a small percentage of exceptions. In general though, the existence of tipping means people eat out less often than they otherwise would.