increase math anxiety in public forums

[tsukikage]

"As the authors note, anxiety about doing math, particularly in a public forum such as calculating the tip for a restaurant check, has long been known to be an impediment to math performance, independent of quantitative skill."
- from Female teachers transmit math anxiety to female students

That makes me feel a lot better. I know I'm good at math - at least the straightforward stuff. But when I tried to do simple mental math at work in front of customers... Yah, no. I need a pen and paper, and even then I tend to get a bit nervous. It probably doesn't help that I tend to mentally compute things in a rather... time-consuming... manner.

Comments

[tiwonge.livejournal.com]

Once, a couple of years ago, several of us (mostly math grad students) were trying to split a tab. (It was somewhat complicated--there were pitchers of beer involved, but some people didn't drink, and there was food ordered, but some people didn't eat. And since there was drinking involved, that may have hampered things, too.) It was amusing how much trouble we had in doing the math for that + tip.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

I just plain hate calculating tips. I don't have any trouble with the arithmetic, I just hate trying to decide what someone else I hardly know should be paid. This is one thing I greatly prefer about dining in Japan - there's no custom of tipping at all. Waiters and waitresses are generally paid set wages, which may be supplemented at some sit-down restaurants with a set percentage of the bill as a service fee. Which the restaurant notes and calculates for you.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Well, it helps that my dad raised me not to decide - I just always round up from 15%, even if the service was bad.

[akaneko.livejournal.com]

I usually go with 15% too, or 1/6 of the bill (whichever is easier to calculate at the time), unless there is something really exceptionally good or bad about the service.

... but, if as a matter of etiquette I'm almost always going to pay the same percentage for service anyway, I'd rather the restaurant calculate it than me. They're the ones with the register, darn it!