Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Why some people are great at giving gifts

Why some people are great at giving gifts

Giving the right gift is an art that some people have mastered. What makes them so good at finding the perfect present?

I know people who keep spreadsheets of everyone they need to buy gifts for during the holidays. They put them together weeks – if not months – in advance. Meanwhile, I scramble at the last minute, double-checking my Amazon purchase history to make sure I’m not embarrassingly giving someone a repeat gift.

I love giving gifts, but I get quickly overwhelmed – yet I know others who seem to thrive at it. Not only do they take care of the task well ahead of time, but the gifts they give are extremely thoughtful, specific and unique.

Why does planning presents come more naturally to some people, sometimes including those who may not be the warmest souls throughout rest of the year, yet knock it out of the park with presents? Psychologists say there’s a reason why Uncle George always knows exactly what you want.

Imagining the moment someone smiles as they open a present could motivate us to become more skilled gift givers


‘Pretty on top’ of life


In my own life, I’ve found the best gifters tend to have their lives together: they’re often super competent, organised and seem to have ‘adulting’ down to an artform. Peggy Liu, associate professor of business administration at University of Pittsburgh, US, who’s studied the psychology of gift-giving, agrees.

Liu says skilled gifters who enjoy gifting will do things like keep track of what they got people the prior year, whether the recipients liked it and also have a set gifting formula for other people in their lives, like their kids’ teachers, colleagues or neighbours.

In Liu’s case, she generally knows what she needs to give – maybe a small gift like chocolates or a coffee mug – and plans ahead of time. She also knows she can give people the one thing they always really want and need – cash – but balance out the impersonal vibe with something like a nice handmade card. Skilled gift-givers may also stockpile throughout the year; when the holidays roll around, they draw from that stockpile right off the bat.

The people Liu knows to be good gift-givers “tend to be pretty on top of it” in life, she says. And while there’s not any formal research that pinpoints what types of personalities are better at giving gifts, Liu says the best gift givers tend to “have this feeling of achievement” buying and giving the perfect gifts – and these people may even view their ability to gift well as part of who they are.

For example, when others in their lives compliment or give them positive feedback for giving such great presents, it reinforces the ego and self-image of the gift giver, which encourages them to keeping spending all that extra time and care when giving gifts. That can heighten the enjoyment from the gift-giving experience, explains Liu.

These people may even view their ability to gift well as part of who they are


“People say, ‘oh, you’re so good at gift giving’. I think some [gifters] start to think of themselves as having an identity of being a good gift giver,” she says. This can build a sense of accomplishment, she says, and ultimately become part of how these gifters view themselves – a motivating factor that can make them strive to continually be good at gifting.

This can potentially work the opposite way, too, making bad gifters worse. Those who see themselves as being poor at picking presents as part of their identities can put themselves into a spiral of stress when it’s time to pick a present. This can kick off “this self-fulfilling cycle of getting worse and worse at it”, explains Liu.

Social-bond builders


Giving gifts is a clear-cut way of building social bonds as well as showing others we want to nurture a relationship with them. This can also fuel one’s enjoyment of gift-giving.

“We’re an extremely social species, and much of our success is due to the fact that we get along in groups by being able to co-operate with others,” says Daniel Farrelly, professor of psychology at University of Worcester, UK, who’s also studied the psychology of giving gifts. “One great way to do that is by exchanging gifts – incurring a cost to benefit another individual – and special times of the year like Christmas are such an opportunity.”

People who are good at giving gifts may have that skill because they view themselves as having the identity of a good gift-giver


Even some people who may seem somewhat surly or otherwise cold during the year can feed off this incentive to build a bond through gifting. It helps that “the rules of gift-giving are easier to follow perhaps than other social niceties”, says Farrelly, which makes using gifting to nurture relationships “particularly appealing” to otherwise not-particularly-warm personalities. In other words, these people could be surprisingly great at giving gifts because giving a present is “a nice unambiguous way” to build those social bonds.

Liu agrees, and says that showing someone you care is a big motivator for why people of all kinds go the extra mile to be skilled gifters. She points to studies that suggest people give gifts with a ‘smile-seeking motive’ – that most shoppers prefer to give gifts that will put a smile on someone’s face when they open it, versus a gift that fits the recipient’s preferences. That suggests a big motivator in why we give gifts is to build interpersonal relationships, instead of just crossing off items on a ‘To Buy’ list.

“The warm and nice feeling we get from giving gifts, and receiving them, is all part of our social ways,” which “motivates us to engage in gift-giving,” says Farrelly.

If you wish you were better at giving gifts, a good way to improve might be to channel the same things that motivate the best gifters: turn it into something fun you look forward to. Try pairing it with something enjoyable; for example, a cup of hot chocolate as you wrap gifts, says Liu. She also suggests asking good gifters whom you know for tips for those formulaic gift ideas, like chocolates or gift cards, that could make things easier.

But maybe the best motivator to improve is to think about that smile you’ll see on someone’s face when they receive your gift, and what Liu describes as “that warm glow”. After all, isn’t that the real reason we give gifts at all each holiday season?

“It makes us feel good,” says Farrelly. “So we want to do it.”

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
×