Most consumers have interacted at some point with the stereotypically eager and disingenuous salesperson who wildly compliments us, as we try a variety of clothes: "Oh my. You look gorgeous in that dress;" "You look fabulously handsome and powerful in that suit." Given the source of the compliment (salesperson's clear ulterior motive), the great majority of consumers should discount the veracity of this "tainted" feedback. That said, most individuals do suffer from a glowing albeit delusional sense of self (the ubiquitous overconfidence effect), in which case such compliments might indeed be perceived as veridical. This issue is akin to the classic fundamental attribution error in social psychology, namely ignoring the situational factor(s) driving a given phenomenon (in this case, the situation is that a salesperson is willing to say anything to close a sale).
With that background in mind, I recently came across a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology that gauged whether compliments as provided by a service provider (hairdresser) to a customer would translate into larger tips. If customers discount the truthfulness of such "empty" compliments then an ingratiation strategy should have no effect on tips. On the other hand, if individuals are pleased to receive compliments (irrespective of the source) then we might expect them to display their appreciation via larger tips.
John S. Seiter and Eric Dutson investigated this exact issue by having two female hairdressers either offer no compliments after cutting and styling customers' hair, or one of two compliments ("Your hair looks terrific" or "Any hairstyle would look good on you"). The naturalistic experiment was conducted at an existing hair salon. The sample was composed of 115 adult participants (44 men and 71 women). Here are the key findings (the numbers shown correspond to the percentage of the total bill that was offered as a tip).
No compliment (n = 42): 9.14%
"Your hair looks terrific" (n = 36): 12.83%
"Any hairstyle would look good on you" (n = 37): 12.51%
The means of the two "compliment" conditions are statistically equal to one another but larger than the "no compliment" mean. Interestingly, it did not matter whether the compliment was specific to this haircut or more general in nature. Both compliments were equally adept at generating positive affect in the customer, which translated into a larger tip. It is noteworthy that when the hairdressers were offering the specific compliment ("Your hair looks terrific"), they were effectively complimented their own work! This did not harm the positive glow of receiving the compliment. Humans do indeed possess fragile egos, which when properly massaged can lead to beneficial outcomes (to those offering the compliments).
Source for Image:
http://hairsalonsdetroit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/hair-salo...
