(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Authors: Rebecca Walker Reczek , The Ohio State University ; Cory Haltman , The Ohio State University , and Grant Donnelly , The Ohio State University If finding the right present and making sure the recipient gets it on time leaves you feeling anxious, you’re not alone. More than half of Americans say that gift-giving stresses them out .
Concerns about on-time delivery are so common that people share holiday deadlines for each shipping service . And in the event that you can’t meet these deadlines, there are now handy etiquette guides offering advice for how to inform the recipient. If you’ve sent late gifts thanks to shipping delays , depleted stocks or even good old-fashioned procrastination , our new research may offer some welcome news.
In a series of studies that will soon be published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, we found that people overestimate the negative consequences of sending a late gift. Why do people tend to overestimate these consequences? Our findings indicate that when people give presents, they pay more attention to norms about gifting than the recipients do. For example, other researchers have found that people tend to be reluctant to give used products as presents because there’s a norm that gifts should be new.
In reality, though, many people are often open to receiving used stuff. We found that this mismatch also applies t.
