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Chapter 2: Problem 82

Researchers at the University of Houston decided to test the hypothesis that restaurant servers who squat to the level of their customers would receive a larger tip ("Effect of Server Posture on Restaurant Tipping." Journal of Applied Social Psychology [1993]: \(678-685)\). In the experiment, the waiter would flip a coin to determine whether he would stand or squat next to the table. The waiter would record the amount of the bill and of the tip and whether he stood or squatted. a. Describe the treatments and the response variable. b. Discuss possible extraneous variables and how they could be controlled. c. Discuss whether blocking would be necessary. d. Identify possible confounding variables. e. Discuss the role of random assignment in this experiment.

Short Answer

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a. Treatments: standing, squatting. Response variable: tips. b. Extraneous variables include server personality, customer mood, food quality, etc., which could be controlled by standardizing the service and food quality. c. Blocking could be beneficial to account for variables like time of day or day of the week. d. Confounding variables could be the cultural background or the personality of the customers. e. Random assignment (flipping a coin) is used to minimize the effect of confounding factors, making the two groups as equivalent as possible.

Step by step solution

01

Identify the treatments and response variables

The treatments are the two different postures of the server: standing and squatting. These are the factors that the researchers are manipulating to observe their effects. The response variable is the tip the waiter receives, as this is the outcome being measured.
02

Discuss possible extraneous variables and control measures

Extraneous variables could include the personality of the server, the customer's mood, the food quality among others. These may impact the tip amount. To control these variables, it's necessary to standardize other aspects of the serving experience as much as possible, for instance, all servers should offer an equivalent level of service.
03

Discuss necessity of blocking

Blocking might be useful to deal with variables like time of day or day of the week. Customers could be more generous or stingy with tips depending on such variables. Therefore, it might be useful to conduct the experiment in blocks at different times of day or days of the week.
04

Identify possible confounding variables

Confounding variables are those that may both affect the treatment and the response, leading to an incorrect association. In this case, a possible confounding variable could be the cultural background or personality of the customer. Some customers might be more likely to reward squatting while others may not care.
05

Discuss the role of random assignment

Random assignment of the treatment (standing or squatting) helps to ensure that both treatment groups are as equal as possible, so that any differences in the tip can be attributed to the different treatments. In this case, the waiter flips a coin to decide how to serve each customer.

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