Is there a psychological meaning behind giving gifts? We’ll explain!

We all know that giving gifts (and especially receiving them) can fill us with feelings of joy. Have you ever been curious about why that is? Well, we sure were! That’s why we looked up the psychological meaning behind gifting, why do we actually give gifts? And how much does ‘’the thought really count’’? Read more if you want to find out all about it!

We all love receiving and giving gifts, say for your significant other or the birthday of your best friend, but where does this tradition come from? Well… it’s certainly not new! We’ll catch you up in this blog post with a quick history lesson on the tradition of gift-giving.

Why do we give gifts?

Scientific research suggests that there are two goals that people consider when giving someone a gift. The first is to make the other person happy, and the second is to strengthen the bond between the giver and the person receiving the gift. This is usually done by giving someone a gift that’s thoughtful and memorable. And this also means figuring out what someone wants without the other person having to ask directly.

To build and strengthen relationships

Giving gifts can actually build relationships. How do you ask? Well, it shows thoughtfulness, caring and that someone’s feelings matter to us. Whether you want to show that with an expensive piece of jewellery or a candy ring from the dollar store doesn’t matter. If there’s a deep meaning behind it, the impact will be the same.

A way of showing love and devotion

Ever received a meaningful gift from someone? We hope you did! Because if so, you know the effect it can have on a person. Usually, we remember meaningful gifts: when they were given to us, by whom, and for what reason. These kinds of gifts make a leaving impact, and that’s exactly what we do it for.

To feel good about ourselves

This might seem shallow, but we obviously wouldn’t want to give a meaningful gift to someone that doesn’t mean a whole lot to us. Seeing (and making) our loved ones happy makes us also feel good in the process, and that is why we do it.

How much does the thought actually count?

Research shows that people tend to overestimate their ability to know what the other person will like, and therefore what gifts will lead to a strengthening of the relationship.

Gift-givers tend to wrongly assume unsolicited gifts (that the other person never even hinted at wanting) are considered more thoughtful and considerate by the receiver than is actually the case.

Gift givers also sometimes overestimate that expensive gifts will be received as being more thoughtful. But it turns out gift recipients appreciate expensive and inexpensive gifts similarly. In reality, they want gifts that make them closer to the gift-giver usually. So with that… we can definitely assume that the thought DOES count.

Now that you know a bit more about the psychological meaning behind gifts, it might also be interesting to learn a bit more about the history behind gifting. Read our blog A QUICK HISTORY LESSON ON GIFT-GIVINGto find out how far the tradition of gifting goes back for humans and why we originally started with these tokens of appreciation!