Date of Graduation

7-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Human Environmental Science (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

General Human Environmental Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Johnston, Nick

Committee Member

Way, Kelly

Second Committee Member

Robinson, Samantha

Keywords

Cashless payments; Consumer Behavior; Digital Tipping; Group dinning; Restaurant Tipping; Social Influence

Abstract

Tipping has long been central to the U.S. hospitality industry, where it provides a substantial share of service workers’ income. What was once a cash-based practice is now increasingly mediated through digital platforms such as card readers, QR codes, and peer-to-peer apps. These systems introduce features such as visibility of the decision, preset defaults, and group payment options that reshape how customers decide whether and how much to tip. While traditional tipping has been widely studied, research on digital restaurant tipping remains limited. This study focuses on two underexplored mechanisms: visibility (whether staff can observe the decision) and group context (whether the customer tips individually or as part of a group). Drawing on impression management and diffusion of responsibility, a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with 320 participants examined how visibility and group settings influence tipping percentage, tip amount, and likelihood of tipping. The study tests whether visibility and group context shape digital tipping behavior in a cashless restaurant environment. The findings indicate that neither variable significantly influenced tip amount, tipping percentage, or likelihood of tipping. Rather than viewing these null findings as a failure of Impression Management Theory or the Diffusion of Responsibility framework, the results suggest possible boundary conditions for these theories. Specifically, established tipping norms and standardized digital tip prompts may be strong enough to reduce or override the social mechanisms these theories predict. The findings contribute to the growing literature on digital tipping by highlighting the potential influence of payment interface design and offering methodological guidance for future research using factorial vignette experiments to examine tipping behavior in cashless environments.

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