Members in the Media
From: The New York Times

Think You Found the Perfect Gift? Think Again

The New York Times:

As you scour shopping websites and store aisles this season, captive to that frenzied, loving and exasperated hunt for perfect holiday gifts, here’s a little gift, of sorts, from researchers who study gift giving and receiving: Think gift card. Because the less specific the gift, the more it will be appreciated.

You shudder, you recoil. But the sad truth is that while gift cards constitute a minority of holiday gifts, according to the National Retail Federation, they have been the most popular gift request since 2007.

But you know your recipient best, right?

In studies to be presented early next year at a conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, researchers tried to analyze the emotional turmoil churned up by the exchanging of gifts, noting that the giver’s earnest intentions may often widely miss the mark of the recipient’s true desires.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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