A recent study finds that late gifts are not as damaging to relationships as people might think. Researchers at Ohio State University reveal that recipients are more forgiving than givers anticipate.
Feeling guilty about sending a belated gift? A new study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, offers some comforting news: recipients aren’t nearly as upset about late gifts as givers assume.
Researchers at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business discovered that the anxiety surrounding late gifts is largely unnecessary.
“Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear,” lead author Cory Haltman, a doctoral student in marketing at the Fisher College, said in a news release.
Through six comprehensive studies, Haltman and his team unraveled the difference between the perceived and actual importance of gift punctuality.
A survey highlighted that 65% of Americans believe that holiday or birthday gifts should arrive on time. However, the study reveals a more nuanced reality.
“A majority of U.S. consumers seem to think that gifts should be given on time – but our study shows that there’s more to the story,” co-author Rebecca Reczek, a professor of marketing at the Fisher College, said in the news release.
In one of the studies, undergraduate students envisioned both giving and receiving a late birthday gift — a pint of ice cream arriving either promptly or two weeks late. The results were telling: those who imagined giving the late gift feared it would damage their relationship more than those who imagined receiving it.
Another notable insight was that gift givers worried that a late present could signal a lack of care for the recipient.
“One of the key social functions of gift giving is to communicate care for the gift recipient, so it is not surprising that people fear a negative impact on their relationship if they are late with their present,” Reczek added.
Contrary to these fears, most recipients didn’t interpret a late gift as a sign of negligence.
“They didn’t see a late gift as signaling a lack of care. They were more forgiving than those giving late gifts thought they would be,” Haltman added.
The perception of lateness even affected the type of gifts given. When the participants imagined their gift being late, they preferred to assemble a personalized gift basket rather than opting for a pre-made one, believing that extra effort could compensate for tardiness.
“People felt that if they put extra effort into the gift, made it more personalized, that can make up for it being late,” Reczek added.
But how late is too late? When the participants considered gifts given two days, two weeks or two months late, both givers and receivers agreed that greater delays could harm relationships. Interestingly, recipients consistently perceived the harm to be less severe than givers did. However, both groups concurred that not giving a gift at all would be the most damaging to a relationship.
“Late is definitely better than never when it comes to giving a gift,” added Haltman.
Ultimately, while timely gifts are ideal, the study suggests that the anxiety over late gifts is often misplaced.
“If you’re late giving a gift, put yourself in the role of receiving a late gift. Based on our results, we believe that should reduce your worry that the lateness is going to be harmful to your relationship,” Reczek added.
The take-home message?
“Just make sure you give the gift,” Haltman concluded.