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The Dark Pattern of Tipping Culture

How credit card machines pressure you into tipping more

Eric Chung
UX Planet
4 min readJun 9, 2023

A photo of the tip screen on a credit card machine, showing options for 15%, 18%, 20%, and 30% tip.
(Source: CBC)

Have you ever noticed how credit card machines seem to have a sneaky way of making us tip more? It’s like they’ve cracked the code to our generosity — or maybe it’s just a dark pattern at play.

Back in the day, tipping used to be a straightforward act of showing appreciation for good service. Credit card machines would offer tip options as low as 10% or 12%, giving us the flexibility to reflect our satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service we received. It made sense, right?

But as time went on, those low-tip options became not-so-low anymore. Nowadays, you’ll often find yourself facing tip options that kick off at a whopping 18%. The pressure is definitely on you to dig deeper into your pockets.

Social desirability bias

This thing called social desirability bias plays a significant role in tipping culture. It’s that little voice in our heads that whispers, “Don’t be cheap! The server is watching you!” And it’s true, isn’t it?

Think about it — when the server is standing right there, looking at us, it’s hard not to feel that pressure to appear generous and avoid the dreaded label of being cheap. We want to be seen as appreciative and fair, so…

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Published in UX Planet

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Written by Eric Chung

Writing about design, business, or whatever's on my mind

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