A new study out of Ohio State University found a trick you can use to get people to love the gifts you give them: It’s all in how you position them.
They found that when someone gives a gift with a message about how it’ll save the person TIME, the person likes the gift . . . but when the message mentions how the person needs the gift for financial reasons, the person doesn’t like it.
For the study, they gave $5 Starbucks gift cards to college students. Half of the cards had the message, quote, “I know you’ve been stressed for money. I hope you’ll enjoy this gift card in hopes that it will save you some money.”
The other half got the message, quote, “I know you’ve been stressed for time lately. I hope you’ll enjoy this gift card in hopes that it will save you some time.”
And even though that doesn’t make a ton of sense . . . like, why would a Starbucks gift card save time? . . . the people who got the time saving message appreciated the gift way more and had more positive feelings toward the gift.
That being said: People in both groups were equally likely to spend the gift cards, so even if someone doesn’t love your reasons for giving them a gift, they’ll still use it.
