Thought Is Not As Important As Giving What They Really Want
If you’re struggling to find a thoughtful gift for someone you barely know: relax a little. According to experiments in the psychology of giving and receiving gifts, your thought is not as important as you think.
In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology , people were asked to buy a gift for a friend or stranger at a museum store. The recipients only cared about whether the gift was good, not whether they knew the giver had chosen it deliberately.
The only time that thought mattered was if the giver thoughtlessly chose a cheesy gift to a close friend or family member. In this example, the recipient was told that he received something cool, like Newton’s cradle , but it turns out that the giver can only choose things like a pen or a deck of cards. If a person liked to play cards, and he received cards, he agreed with the gift. But if the gift was dull and random, the recipient was disappointed.
The lesson seems to be this: For people with whom you are not very close, don’t worry about buying a gift that looks thoughtful. Just buy what you need. Cash, for example, goes well, as does anything on a person’s wishlist. According to other experiments, registering is good, and therefore giving everyone the same gift. For more information on the psychology of gift giving, see the link below.
The perfect gift? This is what they asked for | The newspaper “New York Times
Photo by Laura Bittner .