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Good news: unlike almost everything else in your life, compassion is not canceled!

Bloomberg reported that drivers for GrubHub, Seamless and Domino’s Pizza are seeing increased gratuities. Customers are adding an extra 15% to their GrubHub tips given the risks of delivery in these times.

But this is not always the case at Instacart, the service responsible for delivering groceries to thousands of Americans. CNN reports that Instacart workers are experiencing a particular kind of “bait-and-switch” phenomenon called “tip-baiting.”

Tip-baiting refers to customers of on-demand delivery platforms initially offering a high tip and then adjusting the tip to a lower amount, or even $0, after the delivery occurs. This is particularly harmful in the context of the pandemic. Workers who rely on tips while they and their family members lose income risk their health for the false promise of needed cash. 

Why is this happening? It’s tempting to attribute this to the idea that there are just bad people who do bad things. But behavioral psychology offers us another view.

We can conceptualize the psychological underpinnings of behavior (B) as a function of P (perceptions, impulses, heuristics, judgments, and motives) and E (perception of material and psychological gains and losses).

Say we define the B as tip-baiting. What is the P? The concept known as “thick-skin bias” likely plays a role. This refers to people’s perception of low socioeconomic status individuals as less harmed by negative events. In this situation, those who order from Instacart perhaps assume its workers have a low socioeconomic status, that they are accustomed to negative treatment, and are, therefore, harmed less by tip-baiting.

Clarke Wheeler is a candidate for a master's degree in...

Clarke Wheeler is a candidate for a master's degree in public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Credit: Clarke Wheeler

“Misconstrual,” misinterpretation resulting from placing an incorrect construction on words or actions, also likely plays a role in the P. In this context, people ordering from Instacart could be learning about the increased tip amounts delivery workers are receiving and misconstrue this by believing there is no longer a need to individually tip. In other words, why tip if workers are getting more than enough?

And what is the E of the behavior function? This could be the material and psychological losses associated with the pandemic, from job loss to lost social connections and opportunities. In this way, behavior is partially a function of the pandemic.

Reminding people to be compassionate is always important. At the same time, the pandemic reminds us that human behavior is complex, irrational, and, sometimes, mean. We can employ the behavioral psychology tools we have to correct for this and, perhaps, establish a norm of compassion in the face of chaos.

Clarke Wheeler is a candidate for a master's degree in public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

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