Journal
of Experimental Psychology and others all with different opinions
"Everyone
has been a giver and receiver often in the past," says Francis Flynn, a
professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School
of Business, who has done research in the field of gift giving. Despite knowing
what these roles feel like, people often fail, for instance, to draw on the
experience of being a recipient when they are shopping for a gift to give, he
says.
It
turns out it's not the thought that counts, it's the gift that counts,"
says Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of
Chicago who co-authored the November study.
Dr.
Epley says he asks his wife to tell him what she wants before the holiday
season. She presented him with a list last week.
Thoughtful
gifts don't necessarily lead to greater appreciation, according to a study
published in November in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. The
benefit of a thoughtful gift actually accrues mainly to the giver, who derives
a feeling of closeness to the other person, the study found.
People
are more appreciative when they receive a gift they have explicitly requested,
according to a similar study published last year in a separate publication
called the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Another
study found spending more money on a gift doesn't necessarily translate into
greater appreciation. That might come as a surprise to many gift givers, who
often assume that a more expensive gift conveys a higher level of
thoughtfulness, according to the research, published in 2009 in the Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology.
Regifting, once a social taboo, is gradually gaining in acceptance. ---According to a nationwide consumer-spending
survey by American Express. The figure
rises for the holiday season, when 79% of respondents said they believe regifting
is socially acceptable. The survey, which polled about 2,000 people last year,
found that nearly one-quarter of consumers said they regifted at least one item
the previous holiday season.
In the study of regifting, researchers conducted five separate experiments
involving nearly 500 people in both real and imagined scenarios. The reason
people weren't overly bothered when their gifts were later regifted was because
they generally believed the recipient was free to decide what to do with an
item. On the other hand, regifters were fearful of offending because they
believed the original giver should retain some say in how the gifts were used.
The
different points of view held true regardless of whether the gift givers and
receivers were friends. The relative desirability of the gift also didn't
affect the findings. When the researchers introduced the concept of a national
holiday for regifting into the experiments, participants were more likely to
give away their gifts.
There
are efforts to promote regifting. Money Management International, a nonprofit
that helps people facing financial difficulties, has run a Regiftable.com
website for more than five years and declared the third Thursday in December to
be National Regifting Day, to coincide with many holiday office parties. At
least one state, Colorado, has officially sanctioned an annual regifting day.
"Regifting
isn't a bad thing, it's not quite as offensive as people might think it
is," says Gabrielle Adams, an assistant professor of organizational
behavior at the London Business School and a co-author of the recent study in
Psychological Now,
I wish everyone peace and tranquility this year this year Happy Chanukah just ended and Merry Christmas is just beginning.
