Despite our anxieties over missing gift-giving occasions, Ohio State University researchers have found that even late gifts still helps us spread a bit of holiday cheer.
Across six studies, lead author Cory Haltman, a doctoral candidate at OSU’s Fisher College of Business, found that givers’ fears did not match reality. This is good news for those struggling with guilt and anxiety in the holiday rush leading up to Christmas.
“Go ahead and send that late gift, because it doesn’t seem to bother most people as much as givers fear,” Haltman said.
Research Proves Late Gifts Are OK
Haltman and the Fisher College team observed that while many studies have explored mismatches between what gift givers and recipients consider to be good gifts, there was a noticeable lack of research on the role of timeliness in gift-giving. To address this, the researchers conducted six survey studies involving hundreds of participants. These participants ranged from undergraduate students participating for college credit to members of the general public recruited through crowdsourcing and rewarded with monetary compensation.
The researchers found that Americans generally believe gifts should be punctual, with 65% of survey participants stating that a gift should arrive on time for the occasion.
“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,” said study co-author Rebecca Reczek, a marketing professor at Fisher College.
One of the studies revealed a significant difference in how gift givers and recipients perceive the impact of a late gift on their relationship. Participants were asked to imagine a scenario where a pint of ice cream, given as a birthday gift, arrived on time versus two weeks late. Those imagining themselves as the givers believed a late gift would have a much more negative impact on their relationship compared to those imagining themselves as the recipients. Another study focused on the fear among givers that a late gift might signal a lack of care for the recipient.
Late Gifts Still Show You Care
“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 said.
However, recipients appeared more forgiving than givers anticipated. “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 said.
Interestingly, the researchers found that late gift giving can influence the type of gift chosen. Some participants reported adopting strategies to compensate for the perceived lack of punctuality. For instance, one subject suggested replacing a premade gift basket with a personalized basket of goodies to make up for the 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 explained.
Giving is The Important Thing
The findings do not suggest that neglecting gift-giving occasions indefinitely is acceptable. In one study, participants were asked to imagine giving or receiving a gift at varying intervals after the occasion: two days late, two weeks late, or two months late. Both givers and recipients agreed that increasing delays caused more harm to the relationship. However, givers consistently overestimated how much recipients would feel hurt by a delayed gift.
Despite these findings, failing to give a gift at all was seen as the most harmful action by both givers and recipients. Even a severely late gift was viewed as better than giving no gift.
“Late is definitely better than never when it comes to giving a gift,” Haltman said. “Just make sure you give the gift.”
The paper “Better Late Than Never? Gift Givers Overestimate The Relationship Harm From Giving Late Gifts” appeared on December 5, 2024 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.