The Oversensitivity in Gift-Giving Phenomenon

Many of the papers comprising the gift-giving literature have givers and recipients evaluate potential gifts. That is, these studies either have givers forecast a recipient’s reaction to a gift (e.g., predict how much it would be liked) and recipients react to the same gift (e.g., indicate how much they would like it), or they have both parties react to a gift (e.g., indicate the extent to which it is thoughtful). In the present work, we document how many of the findings in this segment of the gift-giving literature can be summarized by the same underlying theme: givers’ responses exhibit greater sensitivity to differences in a gift’s characteristics (e.g., its level of value, its attributes, the effort it required) than do recipients’ responses. We call this idea the “oversensitivity in gift-giving phenomenon,” and throughout this paper, we document the various findings that emulate this theme, outline its moderators, discuss several theoretical frameworks that could potentially explain why it emerges, detail its practical implications, and shed light on multiple paths for future research.