Gifts have a circle life, innit? You give a gift now to a friend's birthday and you get a gift a few months later from the same person. You pay for a gift and they pay for your gift. And in most cases, we pay similar amount of money; if someone buys you an expensive gift, you most probably will buy back an expensive gift unless you can't afford it. In the contrary, if someone buys you a cheap present, is unlikely you will buy him/her back an expensive present. Thus, money and gifts make a circle. So why do we like gifts?
We like gifts because we decrease the pain of paying. I would love to buy a mont blanc wallet but I decided that it doesn't worth to buy for that price and the pain of paying is high, but what if someone else buys the wallet for me? Would I say to him that I cannot accept the present and he/s should return the present back or would I accept the present? And thus the pain of paying disappears.
You don't pay that particular time and adding to that you also remove the market norm transporting it to a social norm. (social norm is how people's behaviour influenced by the perception of what is normal, New York times 2011) What if you receive a gift and it has a price on it? It doesn't move from market norm to social norm but stays in market norm and most likely(at least that is the result of Dan Ariely's research) you wont enjoy the present as much as if there is no price on it(Which then, it goes to social norm) A great example is the "secret Santa" where everybody buys a gift to someone else with a maximum amount of money. Why don't you just buy a gift from your self where you know you will like? Because it moves in your mind from the money prospective to the social prospective.
You don't pay that particular time and adding to that you also remove the market norm transporting it to a social norm. (social norm is how people's behaviour influenced by the perception of what is normal, New York times 2011) What if you receive a gift and it has a price on it? It doesn't move from market norm to social norm but stays in market norm and most likely(at least that is the result of Dan Ariely's research) you wont enjoy the present as much as if there is no price on it(Which then, it goes to social norm) A great example is the "secret Santa" where everybody buys a gift to someone else with a maximum amount of money. Why don't you just buy a gift from your self where you know you will like? Because it moves in your mind from the money prospective to the social prospective.
So three reasons to like presents that much even if financially and in substance is a life circle are: decrease of the pain of paying since you don't pay at that time, eliminate the market norms and increase the social norm.
Source: Dan Ariely - The pain of paying
