To earmark or not to earmark when gift-giving: Gift-givers' and gift-recipients' diverging preferences for earmarked cash gifts

Abstract

Much research has shed light on thewhat to givefacet of gift?giving; that is, which typesof products should consumers give as gifts? However, little research has investigated thehow to givecomponent of gift?giving; that is, holding the gift itself constant, how should itbe given? In the present work, we explore the messaging aspect ofhow to give,therebyexpanding the gift?giving literature. Specifically, we investigate gift?givers' and gift?recipients' preferences regarding the practice ofearmarkingcash gifts (i.e., suggesting thata cash gift be used on a particular product). Across multiple studies, we demonstrate thatgivers are less likely to earmark cash gifts than recipients prefer, because givers viewearmarking as less thoughtful compared to recipients. Moreover, consistent with athoughtfulness account, we show that givers are more likely to earmark in situationswhere they view earmarking as thoughtful. We conclude by discussing how our workoffers a unique contribution to the gift?giving literature (as it is the first to document agiver?recipient asymmetry involvinghow to give), suggests that givers should earmarkcash gifts more often, and clears many paths for future research (on other potentialgiver?recipient asymmetries tied tohow to give)