{"id":10769,"date":"2017-12-17T04:52:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T04:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=10769"},"modified":"2017-12-18T04:55:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T04:55:55","slug":"when-cringeworthy-gifts-are-worse-than-inconsiderate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/when-cringeworthy-gifts-are-worse-than-inconsiderate\/","title":{"rendered":"When cringeworthy gifts are worse than inconsiderate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deborah Y. Cohn<\/a>, New York Institute of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Ever wondered why your mom bought you that inexplicable thing? You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

I have spent years doing consumer research related to gift giving<\/a>. In my field, conventional wisdom<\/a> surmises that when gifts fail to please recipients, it\u2019s accidental. But I\u2019ve determined that sometimes people give bad gifts on purpose.<\/p>\n

My personal interest in this dynamic stems from a gag present my dad gave me when I was a kid. As I unwrapped his box in a box in a box, the anticipation grew bigger as the boxes got smaller. When I found that the last box was empty, it crushed me. He thought it was funny. (In my dad\u2019s defense, this happened on April Fool\u2019s Day, an occasion on which we had no gift-giving traditions.)<\/p>\n

But I never could shake my urge to learn why someone would give such a rotten gift.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n It can be hard to recover from a disappointing gift, even when it\u2019s supposed to be a gag.<\/span>
\n unguryanu\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Studying mean gifts<\/h2>\n

The total cost of unwanted gifts is high, both in terms of dollars and in damaged relationships, I\u2019ve found in my research.<\/p>\n

Unwanted merchandise returned to U.S. retailers during the 2015 holiday season (excluding fraud cases) totaled US$60.84 billion<\/a>. This sum of course leaves out the many unwanted gifts that are regifted, ignored, sold, donated or thrown away.<\/p>\n

No data exist about how many presents are cruel, but this problem has implications for brands, retailers, marketers and consumers at a time when the National Retail Federation predicts that Americans are spending an estimated $678.75 billion a year on presents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Depending on whether you\u2019ve got similar tales of woe, you may (or may not) be surprised to learn that many people intentionally give gifts with no concerns for the recipient\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n

\n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n