Grapevine

Move over, heartfelt chats, it's the gift that counts

The next time you're looking to cheer up a friend or loved one, giving them a small gift—flowers, candy, a homemade treat—may lift their spirits faster and better than a supportive talk.

A new research paper co-authored by Hillary Wiener, assistant professor of marketing at UAlbany's Massry School of Business, finds that receivers of support "perceive a gift to be a larger sacrifice" by the support giver rather than a conversation. This perceived difference in sacrifice results in gifts being more effective at "promoting emotional recovery" or, in other words, making recipients feel better.

The paper, "Money can buy me love: Gifts are a more effective form of acute social support than conversations," was published in August by the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Co-authors are Holly Howe from HEC Montreal and Tanya Chartrand from Duke University.

"A gift that's given—outside of a birthday or holidays—feels more like they were really thinking about you. They went out of their way to do something special for you," Wiener says of the findings. "And it's that feeling of being cared about that makes people feel better."

The research deployed seven studies, including a behavioral analysis of live interactions between 81 pairs of genuine friends with actual sacrifices of time and money. In that study, the friends were assigned roles of "support givers" and "support receivers."