We tested the hypothesis that gifts act as markers of interpersonal similarity for both acquaintances and close relationship partners. Participants were led to believe that a new opposite sex acquaintance (Experiment 1) or romantic partner (Experiment 2) had selected either a desirable or undesirable gift for them. In Experiment 1, men viewed themselves as less similar to their new acquaintance after receiving a bad versus good gift from her, whereas women's perceived similarity ratings were unaffected by gift quality. In Experiment 2, men reported decreased similarity to their romantic partner after receiving a bad gift, whereas women responded to the bad gift more positively; perceived similarity, in turn, had an impact on participants' evaluations of the relationship's future potential. This research highlights the need for more experimental work on gift-giving, which has been largely overlooked by mainstream social psychologists despite its economic and interpersonal significance.
Author(s): Elizabeth W. Dunn1, | Jeff Huntsinger2, | Janetta Lun3, | Stacey Sinclair4
Author(s) affiliations
1 University of British Columbia.
2 Loyola University Chicago.
3 University of Virginia.
4 Princeton University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elizabeth Dunn, 2136 West Mall, U. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4 Canada. E-mail: edunn@psych.ubc.ca.
You have no access to this article
