The Daily Stat: A Heart-Shaped Bowl Makes You More Altruistic

 

Are you having trouble viewing this email? If so, click here to see it in a web browser.

September 18, 2013 A Heart-Shaped Bowl Makes You More Altruistic 46.3% of restaurant customers left tips when they were given heart-shaped dishes for their money, compared with just 31.2% and 26.2% when the tip dishes were round or square, respectively, says Nicolas Guéguen of the Université de Bretagne Sud in France (the experiment was conducted in France, where tipping is not expected because a service charge is included in the bill). The findings suggest that a simple physical cue such as a heart-shaped bowl can induce thoughts of love, which activate altruism and helping behavior. SOURCE: Helping with all your heart: the effect of cardioid dishes on tipping behavior

PREVIOUS STATS Homes in Formerly Bombed-Out Areas of Rotterdam Now Command Higher Prices An Upside of a Long Recession: A Deepening of Personal Trust Do You Buy Stocks Just in Time for the Dividends? You're Not Alone Investors Will Like Your Company Better if You Shorten Its Name Analyst Scrutiny Impedes Corporate Innovation Weighing the Value of an Infantry Soldier's Life

BEST SELLERS HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials | HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set | HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations | HBR Guide to Better Business Writing | HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done

FEATURED PRODUCT Stats and Curiosities: From Harvard Business Review The Daily Stat is now a book! Get all the best stats, handpicked from our archives and curated by topic. Download a free preview today!

FEATURED PRODUCT The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems HBR Press Book World hunger. Climate change. Crumbling infrastructure. It's clear that in today's era of fiscal constraints and political gridlock, we can no longer turn to government alone to tackle these and other towering social problems. What's required is a new, more collaborative and productive economic system. The Solution Revolution brings hope—revealing just such a burgeoning new economy where players from across the spectrum of business, government, philanthropy, and social enterprise converge to solve big problems and create public value. By erasing public-private sector boundaries, the solution economy is unlocking trillions of dollars in social benefit and commercial value. Where tough societal problems persist, new problem solvers are crowdfunding, ridesharing, app-developing, or impact-investing to design innovative new solutions for seemingly intractable problems. Providing low-cost health care, fighting poverty, creating renewable energy, and preventing obesity are just a few of the tough challenges that also represent tremendous opportunities for those at the vanguard of this movement. They create markets for social good and trade solutions instead of dollars to fill the gap between what government can provide and what citizens need. Buy It Now

ADVERTISEMENT

HBR.ORG | THE MAGAZINE | BLOGS | BOOKS | CASES | STORE | SUBSCRIBE TO HBR UNSUBSCRIBE | NEWSLETTERS PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT Copyright © 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing, an affiliate of Harvard Business School. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing 60 Harvard Way Boston, MA 02163 CUSTOMER SERVICE: 800-545-7685 (US/Canada) 1-617-783-7600 (outside the U.S. and Canada)