It turns out that giving gifts too late is not a bad thing, the expert says

present These are the fundamental elements of Christmas. During this time, many people enjoy giving and receiving things from their loved ones that remind them that they love them and are thinking about them. It is logical that not everyone can afford to buy gifts. This is what we should remember at Christmas. Exactly the same as the fact that there are people for whom there is no point in showing happiness on these holidays and we should not force it. Now, if someone is free and willing to give gifts, he may encounter a problem, especially on such dates: late gifts.

If we do online shoppingCourier services may be overloaded and our gift may arrive late. Even if we buy them at physical storeit is possible that what we wanted to buy will not be available when we decide to look for it. All this, as well as forgetfulness or busy lives, are the reasons why we sometimes tend to give gifts late.

This usually makes us feel very guilty. We feel like we’ve let that person down if we show up to Secret Santa or their birthday (this doesn’t just apply to Christmas) without a gift. So, does the person who receives the gift feel as much rejection as we think? Reality, according to research marketing psychology just published, this is not true.

How Late Gifts Make Us Feel

To conduct the study, the researchers interviewed a number of volunteers, all of them students, about their perceptions give or receive a gift. When assessing the level of dissatisfaction, they found that those who participated in the simulation as gift givers felt very bad if the gift arrived after the required date. They thought the other person would think they didn’t care. On the other hand, those who acted as recipients did not feel rejected.

In another part of the experiment we tried to find out what was the limit of time during which he started show dissatisfaction. With a two-day delay, there was no dissatisfaction with the late gift, as there was with a two-week delay. Finally, after two months there was some refusal, but not too much. It was easily forgivable.

Because people giving gifts thought that the other person might feel forgotten, another experiment was conducted in which participants gave gifts. grocery basket. If a gift arrived late, volunteers whose turn it was to give the gift felt less bad if they had prepared the basket themselves compared to having already prepared the basket. This indicates that if they had been so dedicated in preparing the gift, they would have felt that their loved one would not have felt so neglected.

What happens if there is no gift?

We have already seen that ill-timed gifts are not as problematic as we might imagine. What happens if the gift never arrives? This was also tested during the study and it was clear that in this case both those who gave and those who received the gift They saw it as a bad idea.

It is much better to give gifts late than not to give anything at all. And our loved ones can understand that we have such a busy life that gifts do not arrive on time. But it’s harder for them to digest than the opportunity to finally give a gift. We forget or choose not to.

In short, if you see yourself having to give a late gift this Christmas, don’t worry. According to science, it’s always better to be late than not to show up.