On average, Black consumers have been reliably shown to tip restaurant servers less than their White counterparts, and this difference has been widely acknowledged to contribute to servers’ negative attitudes toward Black customers. However, studies centered on explicating the actual and perceived magnitude of Black–White tipping differences are scarce. Furthermore, there have been no studies conducted that have aimed to identify and test for individual and/or environmental factors that encourage the development and sustainment of exaggerated or stereotypic perceptions of interracial differences in customers’ tipping practices. In response, this study offers an unconditional meta-estimate of the Black–White tipping differential to this literature. Given the available published evidence, we estimate that as a percentage of the bill, the average Black customer is likely to leave a tip that is 3.30 percentage points less than would be left by a White customer. In addition, by analyzing data derived from a factorial survey experiment that was administered in two independent and demographically diverse samples of servers, this study demonstrates that servers’ perceptions of Black–White tipping differences are significantly shaped by racial antipathy and/or employment in a workplace characterized by anti-Black discourse and observed mistreatment of Black clientele. Taken as a whole, our results suggest that although a Black–White tipping difference does exist, there is a notable segment of the population of restaurant servers, namely, those who harbor prejudicial attitudes and/or work in racialized workplaces, who may cognitively exaggerate the magnitude of this difference. Thus, to curtail the industry challenges that stem from Black–White tipping differences (e.g., service discrimination, lawsuits), restaurant operators are encouraged to devise strategies to actively confront servers’ stereotypic perceptions of Black customers’ tipping behaviors.

Negative stereotypes are widely assumed to underpin the mistreatment that black Americans sometimes experience while engaging in everyday consumption activities like shopping or dining away from home. However, studies that directly observe the relationship between service providers’ endorsement of racial stereotypes and the nature of their interactions with black consumers are rare. In response, this study presents results from a factorial survey experiment designed to assess a theoretically grounded causal process leading service providers to racially profile consumers. In two independent samples of restaurant servers and bartenders we show that consumer racial discrimination in the context of full-service restaurants is a function of servers’ endorsement of racial stereotypes depicting blacks as undesirable customers who are dishonest, uncivil, demanding, and bad tippers. Furthermore, we show that servers’ endorsement of such stereotypes and their resultant tendencies to discriminate against black diners increases as a function of contemporary anti-black animus and employment in workplaces characterized by explicit expressions of anti-black biases.

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