Study Finds That Using Mobile Wallets Precisely Can Make You Look Petty

Let’s say you are out with friends and are splitting the bill and your share amounts to $19.75. What do you do? Do you pay your friend back precisely $19.75, or do you give them $20 and tell them not to bother with the change? Chances are it is the latter which is perfectly fine because of the hassle of having to deal with change.

However mobile wallets such as Apple Pay do away with that problem as it lets users send precise amounts of money to other users, but apparently that in turn creates a new problem. According to a study (via 9to5Mac) carried out jointly at the University of Virginia, Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School, it seems that using mobile wallets to pay back precise amounts can make you look petty.

The study asked people to evaluate two imaginary individuals, one who paid back precise amounts, while the other rounded up or down the figures, and then asked who’d they rather befriend. 81% of the participants claimed that they preferred the person who rounded up/down the figures, even if in one instance it meant shortchanging them.

The participants also said that when precise numbers are involved, it feels too much like a business transaction. We’re not sure how accurate this study is, but it is an interesting one, but what do you guys think?

 

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: study