The Psychology of +1

For lunch today a coworker and myself went to Logan's Roadhouse.  As usual, before the meal the waitress brought us a basket of hot rolls once we were seated.  Now, if you've been to one of these places like Logan's, Texas Roadhouse or O'Charlies you've probably noticed this but may not have thought to question it.  Well, I was in the mood to question, so I did.

The waitress brought us a basket of 3 rolls.....for the 2 of us.  Now, this isn't the first time I've witnessed this phenomena.  If I go with my wife and FiL, they will bring us a basket of 4 rolls.  It's always driven me a little nuts and today I couldn't take it anymore. 

"Why is it, you guys always bring 1 extra roll for the table, so we sit hear like a couple of assholes pretending to be polite about taking the last roll?"

Well, she gave me a very good reason.

Apparently, the policy is to always bring 1 roll per person +1.  The idea being that no one will take the last roll in many situations and thus the table won't ask for another basket.  They'll just end up leaving the +1 roll there 'til it gets cold and no one wants it but they also won't ask for a new basket since there's still one on the table.  Apparently, when they do bring another basket, it generally never gets eaten or possibly only 1 gets eaten and the rest get thrown away.  So by bringing +1 they've wasted only 1 roll on the table instead of 4.

And now you know.