The Small BIG Small Changes that Spark Big Influence by Steve Martin & Noah Goldstein & Robert Cialdini

Author:Steve Martin & Noah Goldstein & Robert Cialdini
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 2014-08-28T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

* * *

What SMALL BIG can help you find that perfect gift?

If we were to ask a whole bunch of people how good they are at picking the perfect gift for a friend’s birthday or a colleague’s retirement, chances are that most of them would say they’re quite good at it. Yet, if you asked those same people to rate the gift-giving skills of their friends, family, and coworkers, you would probably hear horror stories about them receiving all kinds of unintentionally hilarious items, from dubious hand-knitted sweaters to kitschy trinkets or electronic singing fish. In fact, if people were anywhere near as good at buying gifts for others as they think they are, then websites such as www.whydidyoubuymethat.com and www.badgiftemporium.com would be out of business.

Fortunately, researchers have discovered a remarkably simple strategy to ensure that yours is the gift that garners shrieks of delight and not gasps of horror.

According to a 2008 survey by the National Retail Federation almost 50 percent of Americans anticipate returning at least one holiday gift every year, a clear indication that gifts tend not to be nearly as cherished by recipients as gift givers might think. Noting this rather staggering statistic, researchers Francesca Gino (author of the excellent book Sidetracked) and Frank Flynn were interested in exploring the question of why gift givers and gift receivers so rarely see eye-to-eye on the quality or usefulness of a gift. They also thought that there was a simple solution to solving this problem: Prospective gift givers should just ask their friends, family, and coworkers to list some things they might like to receive and then buy something on the list for them.

One concern with having to ask the recipient what he or she wants is that it might signal that the giver doesn’t know the recipient well enough to buy a personalized gift. Or perhaps worse still, that the gift giver doesn’t really want to spend the personal time, effort, or energy necessary to choose a suitable gift. However, Gino and Flynn suspected that those who received the gifts would actually perceive the gift giver as more thoughtful for buying them something they really wanted.

In one study, Gino and Flynn took a group of married individuals and asked half of them to think about a time when they gave a wedding gift to someone else. The rest of the married people were asked to think about the wedding gifts they themselves had received. In addition, half of the people thinking about giving gifts were asked to think of a gift they chose from the registry, whereas the other half of the givers were asked to think of a gift they bought that was not on the registry.

Similarly, half of the gift recipients were asked to think about a gift they received that was from their registry, whereas others were asked to think about one they received that was not from their registry.

Although the gifts people chose to think about were of roughly the same monetary

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.