双旦要来了,这份科学送礼指南请收好!
如果到了现在这个时候你的圣诞和新年礼物还没准备好,那么你很幸运地抓住了最后一根稻草,这篇文章将是你选购礼物的绝佳指南。什么该送,什么不该送,看完你就心里有数了。 Do: Give people gifts that they want. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that gift-givers overestimate the impact of a surprise gift. In fact, the study found that people tend to appreciate getting things they specifically asked for more than unsolicited presents. Make your life easy and stick to their holiday wish list. Do: Pick a gift card. Gift cards may seem like an impersonal or lazy holiday gift, but surveys have found that they’re actually a popular pick among gift recipients. A survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, for example, found that they were the most requested gift of 2015. Want to keep it even simpler? Other research has found that people are perfectly happy to receive cash as a gift. 所以,我们中国人过节的时候都直接发红包! Don’t: Give gifts on their behalf. Making a charitable donation in a friend or family member’s name may seem like the perfect holiday gift: Your spending goes to a worthy cause, and the recipient gets a gift they feel good about. A 2015 study published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decisions, however, poked a hole in that theory. While close friends or family members may appreciate a socially responsible holiday gift, researchers found that casual acquaintances often feel slighted by them, potentially because the selection focuses “on the symbolic meaning of the gift,” rather than on the recipient herself. Do: Give gifts that reflect your audience—and yourself. A series of studies published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology two years ago found, logically, that recipients prefer holiday gifts that reflect their own interests and hobbies. Interestingly, however, the researchers also found that “givers and receivers report greater feelings of closeness to their gift partner when the gift reflects the giver.” Sharing a favorite book, garment or keepsake with a loved one, then, may make the strongest impact in the long run. Don’t: Splurge on something flashy. It may feel like a faux pas to pick a holiday gift from the clearance section, but research suggests it’s the item—not the price tag—that matters most. While gift-givers tend to think their choices will land better if they’re expensive, research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology didn’t back that up. In fact, there was no clear correlation between present price and recipient satisfaction. Do: Give gifts that will last. Everyday items, like kitchen gadgets or wardrobe staples, may not feel like slam-dunk gifts, but a study published last year in Current Directions in Psychological Science found that people actually prefer presents they can use for months and years to come, rather than something that makes a statement right when it’s unwrapped. Don’t: Dress up a bad gift. If you know a holiday gift is underwhelming, it may be tempting to overcompensate with big bows or fancy wrapping paper—but data from Yale’s Association for Consumer Research says that strategy may backfire. When people got a gift that they liked, the researchers found, attractive trappings slightly enhanced the experience. But when the gift itself was unsatisfactory—a science documentary, for the purposes of the study—wrapping actually worsened the recipients’ perception of the gift, likely because their expectations didn’t match reality. |