Speaker 1: Hey, folks, we are getting closer and closer to Christmas Day,
Speaker 1: and whatever you do, do not buy another Christmas gift
Speaker 1: until you hear from this guy, our guest today, Ropes.
Speaker 1: We had him on with our partners at Yahoo. They
Speaker 1: were great to find him, and we loved him so
Speaker 1: much and we had to get him back and we
Speaker 1: had to get him on our podcast. He's that good,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 2: We did a whole column on Yahoo Life in the
Speaker 2: section there about gift giving and are we doing it right?
Speaker 2: We were basically asking Julian if we were doing things
Speaker 2: the right way. And I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: have questions this time of year about who they should
Speaker 2: give gifts to, well, type of gifts they should give,
Speaker 2: how much should they spend. There are a litany of questions,
Speaker 2: and Julian Give has all the answer.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Then, Julian Give is the social professor at West Virginia.
Speaker 1: He actually studies consumer protection consumer excuse me, consumer behavior,
Speaker 1: but for the purposes of this you all, he actually
Speaker 1: quite literally studies gift giving. So Professor Give is his name,
Speaker 1: who studies gift giving. Let's start off the top here.
Speaker 1: As we're talking to you, we're just a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks away from Christmas. As we get closer and closer
Speaker 1: to Christmas and people run out of time, what mustake?
Speaker 1: What gift buying mistake? Do you see them making a lot?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So thanks, first of all, thank you guys for
Speaker 3: you know, having me on. And I think the number
Speaker 3: one thing is I'm trying to give yourself enough time.
Speaker 3: So I think we know a lot of research and
Speaker 3: different areas, not just gift giving, but other other areas
Speaker 3: where consumer is just over and over, we kind of
Speaker 3: fail to give ourselves enough times when it comes to
Speaker 3: you know, gift giving or other types of tasks or
Speaker 3: whatever it may be. And I think gift giving is
Speaker 3: when there's especially hard tasks that we're faced with as consumers,
Speaker 3: right because we have, you know, sometimes dozens of recipients
Speaker 3: that we have to give gifts too. So I think
Speaker 3: starting early, and in this case right, probably starting very
Speaker 3: in the next couple of days if you haven't already,
Speaker 3: because if you don't, it's just going to be way
Speaker 3: too challenging of a pass for you.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, what happens when we're procrastinators. Look, I used
Speaker 2: to work when I was in high school and college.
Speaker 2: I worked at Macy's and I would see on Christmas
Speaker 2: Eve all of these I'm sorry, mostly men running in
Speaker 2: and I happened to work in the lingerie department, and
Speaker 2: they would just be grabbing anything and everything. And then
Speaker 2: the next day after Christmas, I would see all their
Speaker 2: wives in the return line saying he thought I would
Speaker 2: wear this or that I would want this. What does
Speaker 2: the biggest mistake people make when they wait until the
Speaker 2: last minute?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so funny enough, there's actually research showing that men,
Speaker 3: we do, tend to start our holiday shopping later than
Speaker 3: women than will women do. So maybe so you know
Speaker 3: the evidence for it right right in your own experience, right,
Speaker 3: And so I think I think the biggest thing, right
Speaker 3: is that when you're when you're starting so late, it
Speaker 3: just makes it challenging to really hit that home run
Speaker 3: of a gift, right. You have to kind of you
Speaker 3: have to go for these sort of just you know,
Speaker 3: kind of standard items, right, gift cards or just random
Speaker 3: you know, clothing that may not be a good match
Speaker 3: or whatever, right, and it kind of it kind of
Speaker 3: takes away the opportunity for you to really give those
Speaker 3: sort of heartfelt you know, sentimental or you know experiential
Speaker 3: gifts you know that are also often great, right, Sometimes
Speaker 3: gifts are required just the planning and thought ahead of
Speaker 3: time when you're starting so lait. It just it's just
Speaker 3: too hard to hit on those for for all your
Speaker 3: different recipients you might have.
Speaker 1: Okay, sounds like you're screwed. Yeah, the later you make
Speaker 1: so as it gets later, here's another question, who should
Speaker 1: be on your list of recipients? That's always a question.
Speaker 1: Do I get a gift for my niece's boyfriend that
Speaker 1: she's been with for eight months? Kind of a thing?
Speaker 1: How do you determine who gets a gift?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's it's it's not a sort of you know,
Speaker 3: concrete answer here, right, but I think at minimum, right,
Speaker 3: come up with whoever is going to be giving you
Speaker 3: a gift? Right, so that way you're not stuck in
Speaker 3: that awkward position where you receive a gift and don't
Speaker 3: have anything give back. In fact, I've researched showing that
Speaker 3: that's one of those situations that make just feel very
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable, unsurprisingly right as recipient from people, people do that.
Speaker 3: So I would suggest, you know, start off making your
Speaker 3: own list, and then also in addition to that just
Speaker 3: be thinking about it. Okay, well, who am I going
Speaker 3: to be seeing this time of year that might be
Speaker 3: giving me one? Right? And it's funny, you know, actually
Speaker 3: in talking to people, you learned and sometimes people are
Speaker 3: like strategically like, oh well, I'm not gonna hang out
Speaker 3: with my cousin between now and Christmas. That way, I'm
Speaker 3: not on the whole give them give them a gift.
Speaker 3: So it's it's a it's a delicate dance, but you know,
Speaker 3: with some strategic planning, you know, hopefully you can do
Speaker 3: a good job.
Speaker 2: Julian, I'm going to admit something here, Especially when I
Speaker 2: worked in an office and I was never sure who
Speaker 2: was going to bring me a gift, I actually brought
Speaker 2: extra gifts wrapped and just in case that happened, I
Speaker 2: had a candle or a bottle of wine or something that.
Speaker 1: I could say, here's your rift.
Speaker 2: Is that wrong to prepare? And does that feel unthoughtful?
Speaker 2: I really was just trying to save face and not
Speaker 2: be embarrassed in those moments.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great, great little antidote, And funny enough,
Speaker 3: that's called gifting from the closet. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you've heard the expression before. But people in fact, people
Speaker 3: at work, it's common people have just like a drawer
Speaker 3: where they have little things dashed away or at home.
Speaker 3: The way where it comes from is because people literally
Speaker 3: have a closet where at the top they just have
Speaker 3: you know, candles and you know, I don't know, bottles
Speaker 3: of wine, whatever. It may be that way that you
Speaker 3: can have, you know, to give to what, you know,
Speaker 3: if they find themselves in that kind of situation. I
Speaker 3: don't think there are anything wrong with it, right because
Speaker 3: I think with those types of recipients, right, there's a
Speaker 3: different level of expectations. It's not like it's with your
Speaker 3: you know, if you're doing that with your significant other,
Speaker 3: maybe it's not the best thing, right, But if you're
Speaker 3: doing it with you know, a co worker, maybe you
Speaker 3: don't know all that well or you know, you weren't
Speaker 3: expecting a gift from them. I think that's perfectly fine,
Speaker 3: right because you're still kind of, you know, setting back
Speaker 3: that message like, hey, I do care about you know,
Speaker 3: here's here's a little token of my appreciation.
Speaker 1: You give folks advice on a budget. But later it
Speaker 1: gets it seems like we'd be more prone to spin,
Speaker 1: to overspin because we're desperate. But what is some advice
Speaker 1: on budget at this late hour.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know it's interesting certainly, you know, with
Speaker 3: gift giving. One of the sort of I would say
Speaker 3: less good things about it is that we put so
Speaker 3: much pressure on ourselves that every year a lot of
Speaker 3: consumers even go into debt, like you accumulate lots of
Speaker 3: you know, credit card debt, which we know, you know,
Speaker 3: high interest debt, right, So it's not not the best
Speaker 3: thing in the world. I think part of the reason
Speaker 3: is just because, like I said, you know, we put
Speaker 3: so much pressure on ourselves to think that we have
Speaker 3: to do give the best thing possible to every single person,
Speaker 3: the most expensive thing, you know, we have to you know,
Speaker 3: just just kind of you know, bumbar people with gifts.
Speaker 3: And the good news is is that the research is
Speaker 3: pretty adamant and showing that for gift givers, you know,
Speaker 3: the prices of the gifts, we think it matters quite
Speaker 3: a lot, but on the recipient side it doesn't matter
Speaker 3: nearly as much as get givers anticipated. So if you
Speaker 3: think about for gift givers, it's kind of like a
Speaker 3: like a line upwards where we think the more money
Speaker 3: we spend, the better the gift is. But for recipient,
Speaker 3: you know, they're generally more appreciative kind of regardless of
Speaker 3: the spending on the gift and the recipients, you know,
Speaker 3: it does seem more important to them, just sort of
Speaker 3: this idea of feeling appreciated, feeling like thought was put
Speaker 3: into gift, you know, that kind of thing. So I
Speaker 3: would suggest, you know, to gift givers out there, you know,
Speaker 3: don't always kind of think you have to be, you know,
Speaker 3: buying all these luxury products for others. Right, You're probably
Speaker 3: probably don't need to be doing nearly as much as
Speaker 3: that as you might think.
Speaker 2: I'm actually curious if that can backfire, if you can
Speaker 2: spend too much on a gift and make something that
Speaker 2: you intended to be beautiful awkward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. In fact, that there's even research
Speaker 3: on this exact thing, so that like, hey, whenever you
Speaker 3: put a lot of money into into a gift, people
Speaker 3: sometimes especially for like recipients who like where it can
Speaker 3: be like awkward. Right, People feel like Okay, they're uncomfortable, like, well,
Speaker 3: why is this person doing this? Like this is a
Speaker 3: little too much, right, So certainly that's that's definitely a consideration.
Speaker 3: But it's one of those where whereas gift givers, I
Speaker 3: think sometimes you know, for better for work, if we
Speaker 3: don't realize it, right, we just think, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: like they're gonna love the you know, these I don't
Speaker 3: know this rolex or whatever you know, and may be
Speaker 3: you know, and you don't realize just how uncomfortable it is,
Speaker 3: you know, especially for recipients, right, who might not have
Speaker 3: the means to, you know, at any point kind of
Speaker 3: reciprocate that kind of gift back, right. And another place
Speaker 3: where this pops up a lot. Actually, one of the
Speaker 3: papers was on in dating relationships, so in early stage relationships,
Speaker 3: whenever this happens and the press liked, oh wow, well
Speaker 3: this is a little bit weird, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's a really good point. The overall, Okay,
Speaker 3: on on the gifts.
Speaker 1: People give experiences, they give sentimental gifts, they give people
Speaker 1: exactly what they ask for, They give cash, they give
Speaker 1: gift cards. What is it in your research that you find, Professor,
Speaker 1: givvey are the most satisfying gifts that people receive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so definitely a tricky question. If I had to
Speaker 3: pick a couple of you know, a couple of answers.
Speaker 3: So first, I think the research just not gift giving,
Speaker 3: but in all of kind of consumer research, it's pretty
Speaker 3: pretty conclusive suggesting that experiences do generally bring more happiness
Speaker 3: to to people than than tangible items.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And there's there's research, like I said, and gift giving
Speaker 3: it shows the same exact thing. We're basically as recipient.
Speaker 3: You know, when you whenever you receive that experience, you
Speaker 3: kind of like it more than givers anticipate and brings
Speaker 3: you closer to gift givers. Right. And you know, one
Speaker 3: of one of the things about experiences is that they
Speaker 3: are kind of in the minority when it comes to gifts, right,
Speaker 3: because most of the gifts we're giving this time there
Speaker 3: are more tangible items. But I think, you know, if
Speaker 3: if we're going to follow the advice of you know,
Speaker 3: consumer behavior, consumer psychology, and gift giving psychology, it does
Speaker 3: suggest that experiences on average are maybe you know, a
Speaker 3: bigger hit than uh, the more tangible items. And then
Speaker 3: the second gift type of gift, and this is the
Speaker 3: one I previously referred you guys as kind of the
Speaker 3: cheat code, is the sentimental gifts because that's another one
Speaker 3: where they're they're not given nearly nearly nearly as often
Speaker 3: as kind of more superficial, kind of tangible, prefer and
Speaker 3: matching gifts, but when we give them their home runs,
Speaker 3: And like I had to explained previously, like the nice
Speaker 3: thing about sentimental items is that whenever you receive one,
Speaker 3: your happiness with it stays kind of flat or increases
Speaker 3: over time. It doesn't decrease like our like our enjoyment
Speaker 3: with you know, more superficial items like a cell phone
Speaker 3: or you know, a treadmill or whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: So I think sentimental gifts are a great one, and
Speaker 3: it's one of those things when I try to convey
Speaker 3: the point I tell everyone like, Okay, well, think about
Speaker 3: some of the best gifts you've ever received, right, which
Speaker 3: are the ones that really kind of almost you know,
Speaker 3: make you cry at times? Right, Like, those are more
Speaker 3: often than not sentinal gifts. And the last thing, you know,
Speaker 3: this is kind of just a broad sort of blanket idea,
Speaker 3: but I really think that recipients, at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, they just want to feel cared for, right,
Speaker 3: So any kind of gift that can show that, like, like, hey,
Speaker 3: I care for you, I appreciate you. I'm signaling that
Speaker 3: I value you, Like those are those are always going
Speaker 3: to be good. You know, that could be a sentimental gift.
Speaker 3: It could just be something show an effort. It could
Speaker 3: be started showing that's hey, you know you know TJ
Speaker 3: mentioned this. You know these these running shoes. It was
Speaker 3: a few months ago when we were walking through the mall.
Speaker 3: And look now I surprise them with them, right, Just
Speaker 3: some something along those lines. So anything that just shows
Speaker 3: just hey, I care, I appreciate you. I think those
Speaker 3: are always going to be his. So just three overarching
Speaker 3: no ideas. But at the same time, I will also
Speaker 3: note there is a lot of you know, kind of
Speaker 3: heterogeneity in people, right we I know, people are different,
Speaker 3: so some things are better for others than others. And
Speaker 3: in fact, you know, when I tell my sister about
Speaker 3: the sentimental gift thing, she's like, oh, no, just give
Speaker 3: me the cash, Like I don't, I don't want I
Speaker 3: don't want anything sentiment. So there's differences across people, right.
Speaker 3: So that's that's a one hundred percent to put that
Speaker 3: out there too.
Speaker 2: Yes, And it would be wonderful if we could all
Speaker 2: be mind readers and know what people want and what
Speaker 2: they don't want. Is it okay to ask someone what
Speaker 2: they want for a holiday or is that putting the
Speaker 2: onus on them now to come up with your gift idea.
Speaker 2: What do you say about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that that is an interesting point, and I think
Speaker 3: sometimes it is. It feels like it's even harder right
Speaker 3: to come up with ideas that we for things we
Speaker 3: want ourselves than what for further people, right, And so
Speaker 3: it definitely is putting a little bit of an onus
Speaker 3: on on others. But I'll tell you the good news
Speaker 3: is that the research does suggest that these things that
Speaker 3: are explicitly requested are generally appreciated more than things that
Speaker 3: that aren't requested, right, And that kind of makes sense
Speaker 3: because you think when you were when you'd ask people, hey,
Speaker 3: what do you want, they tell you, Hey, I want
Speaker 3: this exact pair of headphones. You go and get them.
Speaker 3: They're gonna be they're gonna be pretty happy as opposed
Speaker 3: to you kind of having to have to guess at it. Right.
Speaker 3: So I would say that's sort of the kind of
Speaker 3: the good news behind it. But you are, you know,
Speaker 3: putting a little bit more effort on their part.
Speaker 1: Right, I know sometimes you mentioned your sister, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people, especially younger people, might love to have
Speaker 1: some cash. But what is your take or does the
Speaker 1: research tell you the type of gifts that bring the
Speaker 1: least satisfaction? Is there is there research on that? Essentially,
Speaker 1: I'm asking what should we avoid giving people?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, this is this is an interesting one. So
Speaker 3: what I'll say is that people, you know, a broader
Speaker 3: sort of theme that we're seeing in the literature is
Speaker 3: in this the literarum gift giving. I should say is
Speaker 3: that as recipients, where we often like gifts that long
Speaker 3: term after the exchange, right, they bring us happiness and
Speaker 3: utility and enjoyment. But as gift givers, oftentimes we kind
Speaker 3: of prefer to give things that are better sort of
Speaker 3: in the moment, right like that immediately right when they
Speaker 3: open the gift, which that doesn't always map on to
Speaker 3: what's the best gift in the long run. So I'll
Speaker 3: tell people is like, look, if something is great in
Speaker 3: the moment but kind of horrible down the road, like
Speaker 3: it's not gonna make the best the best gift, right,
Speaker 3: So something like you know, think about like a chocolate
Speaker 3: fondo found in right like that is like, Okay, in
Speaker 3: the moment, it might have a fun little gift, right,
Speaker 3: but like, at the end of the day, how often
Speaker 3: are you gonna end up using that thing? Right? And
Speaker 3: so just this this and I hope I'm not you know,
Speaker 3: touching on gifts, you guys are, but I think we've
Speaker 3: all right, We've all received these things that that are
Speaker 3: maybe like you know, gag gifts or what you know,
Speaker 3: things that are kind of fun at the moment they
Speaker 3: make for it, but then at the end day it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, well, this is kind of like I'm not
Speaker 3: going to enough ever using this thing. So yes, that
Speaker 3: makes sense.
Speaker 2: And speaking of the moment when someone opens a gift,
Speaker 2: how important is This might sound silly, but gift wrapping
Speaker 2: does How much more special can someone feel if you
Speaker 2: do a really good job wrapping the gift or if
Speaker 2: you just hand it to them in a brown paper bag?
Speaker 2: How much has there is the research on how that
Speaker 2: affects the experience of getting or receiving a gift.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to tell you guys what the finding show.
Speaker 3: And I think you're going to be shocked, because I
Speaker 3: was shocked, clanker, this is not my research this is
Speaker 3: other other people's research. But what they did was they
Speaker 3: looked at how neat you wrap a present, right, do
Speaker 3: you wrap it very neatly or do you sloppily wrap it?
Speaker 3: And what they find is that whenever it's sloply wrapped,
Speaker 3: you actually like the item more. And right, it's kind
Speaker 3: of right, what right? Like I agree? Right? And so
Speaker 3: what is the sort of psychology behind that is? Because
Speaker 3: whenever something comes like neatly packaged, right, what that ends
Speaker 3: up doing is it raises your expectations. She's think, oh wow,
Speaker 3: this like look at these ribbit look at how nice
Speaker 3: and clean everything is. But then whenever it's just you know,
Speaker 3: kind of kind of thrown together, you're kind of okay,
Speaker 3: this is going to be a piece of chunk like whatever.
Speaker 3: Then you open it up and you see, oh wow,
Speaker 3: this is like this you know, this brand of cologne
Speaker 3: that I love, right, and that So that's that's you
Speaker 3: know what the resers research on that, and uh yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's what it's what it shows.
Speaker 2: That makes so much sense though, now that you say
Speaker 2: it about expectations, because yes, sometimes the most perfectly wrapped
Speaker 2: gifts coming from like I don't know, sax fifth Avenue.
Speaker 1: It's like a key chain.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh wow, it looked like it was going
Speaker 2: to be something so much better.
Speaker 1: That's that I use that trick when I cook, Julian,
Speaker 1: I make a very good presentation.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't speak to it, like in terms of
Speaker 2: you think about that is so funny. The expectations create
Speaker 2: a different result when you open the present.
Speaker 1: Last couple here for folks in relationships, what is there
Speaker 1: a heightened sense I guess for men and women whoever's
Speaker 1: in a relationship out there advice for because it's always stressful,
Speaker 1: How do you buy for that person in your life?
Speaker 1: What have you been able to see and study and
Speaker 1: know that could help people who are out there still
Speaker 1: scrambling to get something for their love.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think kind of as we touched on earlier, right,
Speaker 3: there's sort of different relationship stages, so that's obviously important
Speaker 3: to sort of sort of take into account. And I
Speaker 3: would say, you know, it feels like it feels like
Speaker 3: romantic relationships is like that one. And then when people
Speaker 3: talk about like in laws or the two where people
Speaker 3: are like, okay, this is where things are getting real.
Speaker 3: It's different than you know, giving my best friends. So
Speaker 3: I would say, you know, for you for your relationship, right,
Speaker 3: just I mean, you know your partner better than anyone, right.
Speaker 3: That's that's the biggest thing, is like, and when you
Speaker 3: talk to these to these couples, what you kind of
Speaker 3: find is that people completely different strategies, you know, all
Speaker 3: sorts of differ people have different strategies. Some people it's okay,
Speaker 3: tell me what you want, they send a list, Person's
Speaker 3: perfectly happy. Others it's like no, no, no, I want
Speaker 3: you to know and you should know me. And if
Speaker 3: you get me this these socks and I one of
Speaker 3: these ones, like that's gonna you know, that's like a
Speaker 3: deal breaker. Right. So I'd say, you know your partner,
Speaker 3: you should have an idea as to what's going to
Speaker 3: work for them, right, and just just follow that strategy
Speaker 3: and you know, hopefully it would be good to go.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: And in terms of just figuring out the in laws,
Speaker 2: do you have any strategies or family members that you
Speaker 2: might not know that well, how do you go about
Speaker 2: picking a gift for them?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: One strategy that people tend to employ these situations is
Speaker 3: they use kind of like third parties to help them out, right, expies. Right.
Speaker 3: So if you don't know your in laws that well,
Speaker 3: you talk to your partners say okay, what do I
Speaker 3: get your brother or your mom or whoever? Right? And
Speaker 3: that's usually a pretty pretty pretty successful successful one. So
Speaker 3: I would say that's that's one more time that one.
Speaker 3: That's it?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: It works well because you're you're in laws, don't you're
Speaker 3: not asking them. And what's also nice about this is
Speaker 3: not only does the person know, but you can also
Speaker 3: use them to kind of ask on your behalf. Right,
Speaker 3: So that way they in law is or whoever has
Speaker 3: no idea, you know that's that's coming from you, but
Speaker 3: it's still an item that they.
Speaker 1: That they like.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 1: One last thing for the people who are shopping, you've
Speaker 1: also noticed, look, what is the right strategy? Because some
Speaker 1: people get great satisfaction out of giving particular gifts. What
Speaker 1: should I guess this is the strategy or some advice
Speaker 1: for people who are trying to find something? But what
Speaker 1: have you determined makes us happiest about the gifts we give?
Speaker 3: So as gift giver is right, there's sort of a
Speaker 3: balance right between giving something that you want to give
Speaker 3: versus the thing that that the recipient wants to receive, right,
Speaker 3: So it's it's right because those don't always they don't always,
Speaker 3: but not always the same thing, right, So I might
Speaker 3: want to give, you know, my wife one thing and
Speaker 3: she might you know, prefer something out. So it's definitely
Speaker 3: a balance. And like I said before, I think one
Speaker 3: of the key, one of the overarching you know keys
Speaker 3: that everything with gift hitting is is that time component.
Speaker 3: Because you give yourself enough time right now, only can
Speaker 3: you find the gift right that you know that that
Speaker 3: you know, can you find a good gift. But also
Speaker 3: it allows you to sort of take the time to think, Okay,
Speaker 3: you know, who am I? Who am I really trying
Speaker 3: to please? Is it? And in some cases you end
Speaker 3: up finding the one that that really pleases both of
Speaker 3: you guys. Right, So it makes for a good, good,
Speaker 3: uh sort of situation for all parties involved.
Speaker 2: And I have one last question for you, Julian about
Speaker 2: when you're figuring out how much to spend, is there
Speaker 2: a price point that research has shown is the sweet
Speaker 2: spot that you spend on somebody where you didn't spend
Speaker 2: too much and they feel uncomfortable, or you didn't spend
Speaker 2: enough and they feel like wow, that's that's how you
Speaker 2: think of me. Is there a sweet spot money wise
Speaker 2: that you should consider when choosing gifts?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, not not really because if you think
Speaker 3: about like, it's just there's so much there's so much
Speaker 3: variance in people, right, different income levels, right, you know,
Speaker 3: the the what you're buying for, you know, a friend
Speaker 3: who is you know, a college student, right, if you know,
Speaker 3: right you told me your children, right, college students right there?
Speaker 3: You know, buying for a college college student versus someone
Speaker 3: you know who's uh, you know, who's very well off,
Speaker 3: would say, right, that's going to be completely different. And
Speaker 3: it also depends on how much you know, you yourself
Speaker 3: are making. Right, that's in people. I think understand that, right,
Speaker 3: And you know, funny enough, I'll actually tell you there's
Speaker 3: research showing that, actually, I pay research showing that we
Speaker 3: like to buy more expensive things for people who we
Speaker 3: think are more well off as opposed to not as
Speaker 3: well off, because we just kind of want to like
Speaker 3: show like, hey, I could look, I can afford this
Speaker 3: nice thing too. So I'd say that that there is
Speaker 3: you know, there's not really necessarily a price for it
Speaker 3: I can give you. I think it's it's going to vary, right,
Speaker 3: based on the situation at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: You know, I think if you, if you do your
Speaker 3: job of you know that that signal I was talking
Speaker 3: about earlier showing like, hey, I care about you, I
Speaker 3: appreciate you, I value the recipient. You know, we'll appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Too, But more is better for me, baby, Ignore Julie
Speaker 1: on that last time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, quantity versus quality? Is there a study on that?
Speaker 2: Because my kids I always think about how it's going
Speaker 2: to look on Christmas morning when they wake up. How
Speaker 2: is the quantity as important as the quality?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So there is, And actually it is. It is what
Speaker 3: you kind of exactly like what you hit on. So
Speaker 3: as givers, we tend to focus more on the well
Speaker 3: we actually focus more on the quality of that item.
Speaker 3: So we like to give kind of high quality items,
Speaker 3: you know, a few flashier things. Whereas recipients, we do
Speaker 3: tend to, relative to givers, you know, appreciate these these
Speaker 3: high quantity of items in part because they oftentimes kind
Speaker 3: of correlate to like how much usefulness I get out
Speaker 3: of them down the road, Right, if I get I
Speaker 3: don't know, like three really nice shirts, or if I
Speaker 3: get you know ten, you know average church. I can
Speaker 3: use the ten average churchs a lot more than three.
Speaker 1: Really nice. So oh well, we told y'all he was good.
Speaker 1: This is Julian Givey, yes that's his last name, Gibby,
Speaker 1: who studies gift giving from West Virginia. Sir, we appreciate
Speaker 1: it and get this, folks. If you like what he said,
Speaker 1: hopefully this will get you squared away for Christmas. But
Speaker 1: we have some questions for him. We're going to do
Speaker 1: another episode and he's going to give us advice on
Speaker 1: that dreaded return regifting situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and do you write thank you notes? How do
Speaker 2: you handle a gift you don't like? And all of
Speaker 2: the do's and don'ts in terms of etiquette when it
Speaker 2: comes to receiving gifts and perhaps yes, returning guests.
Speaker 1: So we'll get into that with him. You can look
Speaker 1: for that episode as well. But Julian, we appreciate your
Speaker 1: kind sir. This has been great getting to know you
Speaker 1: over the holiday. Thank you so much. Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.