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How Your Gifts are Really Valued


Recent behavioral studies are finding that when you give a gift, the recipient automatically values it lower than its actual worth. Why? Simply because it's a gift.

Group payment service WePay decided to take a look at how gift-giving works and found that what you give can be worth—in the mind of the recipient, that is—up to 18% less than its actual retail value:


(Click to enlarge.)

It gets surprisingly worse: at least one gift per person is either never opened, returned, or re-gifted. While I've certainly returned a gift, and probably re-gifted, I've never left a gift unopened. Somehow this seems to be a frequent occurrence. Do you ever leave a gift unopened, or at least value your gifts less solely because they're gifts? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Holiday Misgivings: The Real Dynamics Behind Holiday Gifting | WePay Blog