Previous research has found that the gifts people choose often don’t match what recipients prefer. Building on this, the current study explores a new mismatch: the belief about the importance of sending a gift on time.
It shows that gift-givers tend to overestimate the negative impact of sending a late gift, believing it will signal less care for the recipient, even though recipients don’t perceive it this way.
If you’re worried about giving a late gift for Christmas or a birthday, a new study has reassuring news: recipients aren’t as upset about receiving a late gift as givers often believe.
Cory Haltman, the lead author of the study and doctoral student in marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, said, “Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear.”
In six studies, Haltman and his team examined the mismatch between givers’ and recipients’ beliefs about the importance of timely gift-giving.
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Study co-author Rebecca Reczek, professor of marketing at the Fisher College said, “A majority of U.S. consumers seem to think that gifts should be given on time – but our study shows that there’s more to the story.”
In one study, undergraduate students imagined giving or receiving a birthday gift of ice cream that arrived on time or two weeks late. They were asked to rate how negatively a late gift would impact their relationship.
According to the results, unlike recipients, givers thought that late gifting was more likely to hurt the relationship. The study also found that givers placed more importance on the social norm of timely gift-giving than recipients.
Another study found that participants feared that giving a late gift would signal they cared less about the recipient. As Reczek explained, since one of the main social functions of gift-giving is to show care, it’s understandable that givers worry about the negative impact of a late gift on their relationship.
However, recipients did not perceive a late gift in the same way, and didn’t feel it indicated less care. They didn’t see a late gift as signaling a lack of care. They were more forgiving than those giving late gifts thought they would be.
The fear of giving a late gift even influenced the type of gift people chose to give. In one study, participants who imagined giving a late gift basket said they would feel less concerned if they assembled the basket themselves rather than buying a pre-made one with the same items. They believed that putting extra effort into creating a personalized gift could make up for its lateness.
The researchers also explored whether there is such a thing as being “too late” with a gift. In one study, participants imagined giving or receiving a birthday gift that was two days, two weeks, or even two months late.
Both givers and receivers believed that the later the gift, the more it would harm the relationship. However, recipients always perceived the harm as less severe than givers did, regardless of how late the gift was.
The study also examined the impact of not giving a gift at all. Both givers and receivers agreed that not giving a gift would cause more harm to a relationship than giving a severely late gift.
“Late is definitely better than never when it comes to giving a gift,” Haltman said.
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It is interesting that the study showed people in general believe that it is important to give gifts on time – but gift givers thought violating that norm was more serious than gift recipients, the researchers said.
But Reczek noted that everyone will be a gift giver and a gift recipient at various times in their lives.
Journal Reference
Cory Haltman, Atar Herziger et al. Better late than never? Gift givers overestimate the relationship harm from giving late gifts. Journal of Consumer Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1446