Thought does count, say gift researchers
● Sentimental Christmas gifts are more likely to delight your loved ones than superficial choices, researchers have found.
People are scared of making the wrong choices, so they stick to safer, more predictable presents, even though being bold could win hearts. This is according to a research project’s lead author, Julian Givi.
He said a safe gift was like hitting a sure single in baseball. “A sentimental gift could be a home run [think a six in cricket] but the giver could strike out.
“Rather than risk a strikeout, the giver goes for the sure thing when what the recipient truly desires are sentimentally valuable gifts,” he said.
Givi told the Sunday Times this week: “People spend millions on gifts every year and we wanted to help people make better decisions and make recipients happier.”
The demand for personal gifts, such as photographs, surges in the festive season. Fujifilm photobook assistant Ann Groenewald said: “People put a lot of effort and imagination into composing them.”
But superficial spending is also taking off, if popular purchases from online store Takealot are a reflection. “The hottest items are gaming products [Fifa 18 and Call of Duty: World War 2], music like Taylor Swift’s Reputation and DVDs,” said spokeswoman Leigh Newlands.
The Deloitte 2017 Holiday Survey in the US reveals that clothing consumes a quarter of the expected average gift spending, taking joint first place with gift cards. Toys and hobbies (18%) and electronics (16%) are next.
Givi and his team at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, through two experiments, exposed the mismatch between the gifts people give and those they hope to receive.
If you want to make the thought count, buy yourself the same present. Friends value a gift more when the givers get themselves the same item at the same time, even if these are as prosaic as woollen socks, researchers from US and Canadian universities found.
“The recipients like a ‘companionised’ gift more and feel even closer to the giver,” said Evan Polman, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Deloitte report noted that half of consumers shop for themselves while shopping for others — and plan to spoil their recipients with indulgent presents.
When deciding on a gift, think of decisions some people in Cape Town and the Garden Route had to make this year. If your house is burning down, what would you save: your photo album or your fancy coffee machine?