IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v27y2000i1p84-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Qualitative Steps toward an Expanded Model of Anxiety in Gift-Giving

Author

Listed:
  • Wooten, David B

Abstract

Previous investigations of interpersonal gift giving have uncovered feelings of anxiety among gift givers. The anxious moments that givers often experience stand in stark contrast to the festive atmospheres and joyous celebrations that surround many gift occasions. Why is gift-giving such a torturous endeavor for so many people? What conditions coincide with the anxious moments that givers often experience? What factors drive this anxiety? These questions are explored in this article, which develops a model based on a self-presentational theory and two sets of qualitative data. The results show that givers become anxious when they are highly motivated to elicit desired reactions from their recipients but are pessimistic about their prospects of success. This article identifies characteristics of recipients, givers, and gift situations that appear to precipitate these anxious moments. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Wooten, David B, 2000. "Qualitative Steps toward an Expanded Model of Anxiety in Gift-Giving," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(1), pages 84-95, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:27:y:2000:i:1:p:84-95
    DOI: 10.1086/314310
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/314310
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/314310?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julian Givi & Yumei Mu, 2023. "The Oversensitivity in Gift-Giving Phenomenon," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 619-631, December.
    2. Philippe Grégoire, 2018. "Psychology at work," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 65(2), pages 119-135, June.
    3. Givi, Julian & Galak, Jeff & Olivola, Christopher Y., 2021. "The thought that counts is the one we ignore: How givers overestimate the importance of relative gift value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 502-515.
    4. Cheng, Andong & Meloy, Margaret G. & Polman, Evan, 2021. "Picking Gifts for Picky People," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 191-206.
    5. Amanda J. Sharkey & Balázs Kovács, 2018. "The Many Gifts of Status: How Attending to Audience Reactions Drives the Use of Status," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5422-5443, November.
    6. Givi, Julian, 2021. "When a gift exchange isn’t an exchange: Why gift givers underestimate how uncomfortable recipients feel receiving a gift without reciprocating," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 393-405.
    7. Bénédicte de Peyrelongue & Olivier Masclef & Valérie Guillard, 2017. "The Need to Give Gratuitously: A Relevant Concept Anchored in Catholic Social Teaching to Envision the Consumer Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(4), pages 739-755, November.
    8. de Hooge, Ilona E., 2014. "Predicting consumer behavior with two emotion appraisal dimensions: Emotion valence and agency in gift giving," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 380-394.
    9. Cavanaugh, Lisa A. & Gino, Francesca & Fitzsimons, Gavan J., 2015. "When doing good is bad in gift giving: Mis-predicting appreciation of socially responsible gifts," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 178-189.
    10. Vanhamme, Joëlle & de Bont, Cees J.P.M., 2008. "“Surprise Gift” Purchases: Customer Insights from the Small Electrical Appliances Market," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 354-369.
    11. Shmargad, Yotam & Watts, Jameson K.M., 2016. "When Online Visibility Deters Social Interaction: The Case of Digital Gifts," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-14.
    12. Bradford, Tonya Williams & Sherry, John F., 2013. "Orchestrating rituals through retailers: An examination of gift registry," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 158-175.
    13. Jiamin Yin & Yansu Wang & Jun Pang & Kanliang Wang, 2020. "Customizing products for self versus close others: the effect of intended recipient on creator perceptions of product uniqueness," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 73-87, March.
    14. Park, Yookyung & Yi, Youjae, 2022. "Is a gift on sale “heart-discounted†? Givers’ misprediction on the value of discounted gifts and the influence of service robots," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Givi, Julian, 2020. "(Not) giving the same old song and dance: Givers’ misguided concerns about thoughtfulness and boringness keep them from repeating gifts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 87-98.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:27:y:2000:i:1:p:84-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.