Giver–receiver asymmetries in gift preferences

When people are asked to choose between gift items, givers and receivers sometimes show different patterns of preferences. The article reports four experimental studies exploring these giver–receiver asymmetries. Whereas givers tend to prefer exclusive, but smaller gift items, receivers appear to prefer less luxurious, and more useful gifts (Experiment 1). Givers prefer gift vouchers to cash, and are concerned about timing, whereas more receivers accept cash gifts, and claim that it does not matter if the gift arrives late (Experiment 2). One interpretation of the results could be that givers conform more strongly to gift conventions (cultural norms for gift exchange). It is further argued that these differences are not due to a perceived difference between self and others (Experiment 3), but rather because of situational differences. When receivers perform separate evaluations of gifts rather than joint evaluations (pairwise comparisons), they tend to change their preference pattern towards a higher rating of exclusive gift items (Experiment 4).