Gifts matter…even for the person who has everything.
Gifts influence how people feel and think about the gift giver…Elizabeth W. Dunn, associate professor of psychology at University of British Columbia and a co-author of “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending,” (Simon & Schuster, 2013), pointed to a study she was involved in that tested couples’ reactions to the gifts they thought their partner had selected for them. “In the experiment, what gift people picked for their partners ended up influencing how they responded when asked if they would marry the person.” “What that says to me is that people should put some thought and money into a gift,” Ms. Dunn said.
Gifts involving activities experienced together matter even more than gifts of things to many people. Cassie Mogilner Holmes, assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, found that all well chosen gifts helped to strengthen relationship bonds, but those that were experiences made those bonds even stronger.
“If my best friend were to take me out to dinner or give me a gift certificate to that same restaurant, my receipt of that gift would lead me to feel closer to her than if she had given me a sweater,” Ms. Holmes said.