Christmas shopping is about to get a whole lot easier.
Research suggests we are wasting our time by spending hours choosing different gifts for our friends.
Instead, they’d be happier to all be given the same thing.
Scientists say when we choose presents for lots of people we tend to focus too much on trying to get everyone a different thing.
As a result, we don’t buy them the things they’d really like.
In other words, by trying to be thoughtful, we choose the wrong present.
The US researchers did six experiments in which they shoppers were asked to choose a gift or card for one person or for presents for two people with similar interests.
When shopping for one, the volunteers tended to choose the most appealing gift.
But when shopping for two, they tended to pass up the more appealing gift in favour of getting different presents for each person.
The University of Cincinnati researchers said: ‘It may seem more thoughtful to give individual gifts that convey an understanding of each recipient’s unique identity than to give less personalised gifts, even if those less personalised gifts may be liked better overall.
If that wasn’t enough to persuade you to not waste too much time on your Christmas shopping, previous research has shown that recipients tend to underestimate the price of gifts. They also fail to fully appreciate the amount of thought put in.
Tags: Christmas gifts