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I’m sure you’ve heard this debate before and what the
etiquette experts say: usually a range from a flat-out “no” to “only in rare
circumstances.” They claim the original gift-giver would feel disrespected if
he or she knew, as effort and money were put into the purchase and the
intention was not for the gift to go to another person. Note that this line of
reasoning about regifting relies on an assumption about how other people might
feel if they were involved in regifting. According to the experts, we shouldn’t
regift because the original gift-giver might be hurt. But
is this actually the case – are people really offended when someone regifts
their gift?
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In a series of studies published last year, psychologists addressed this question by asking people to imagine being in a gift-giving scenario. Some imagined being a gift-giver, and some imagined being a gift-receiver. The study participants were asked to imagine what would happen if the gift-giver regifted the item to someone else. It turned out that gift-givers imagined being much less offended if someone re-gifted a present from them than gift-receivers imagined they would be. The receivers overestimated how offensive regifting was – they even thought that givers would be equally offended by a regift as if the giver threw the gift in the trash!
The researchers also tested out these ideas within groups of
friends during actual gift exchanges. When groups of friends engaged in a
regift process (Person A gave a present to Person B, Person B rewrapped the
present and gave it to Person C), the receivers again thought that the original
gifters would be more offended by the subsequent regift than they actually
were.
Why? What makes gift-receivers overestimate how upset
gift-givers would be by regifting? One reason for this lies in variation in the
perceived entitlement of the original gift-receiver. In other words, the
original gift-givers and gift-receivers (Persons A and B) had different
thoughts about how much the receiver was entitled to do what he or she wanted with the gift. The givers thought the receivers were more
entitled to determine the use of the gift than the receivers thought they were. In giving the gift,
the givers felt they were also giving the entitlement of what to do with the
gift. Partly because the givers felt the receivers had more say over what happened with the gift, they were then less offended when the giver regifted the gift.
A regift |
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Whatever you decide, good luck getting inside other people’s
heads and choosing gifts that help strengthen your relationships this season!
Does regifting seem
offensive to you as a gift-giver? What about the other side – would you feel
offended if you were the recipient of a regift? Let us know your thoughts on
regifting and gift entitlement in the comments!
Reference:
Really great article....POS 355 Individual Assignment
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