Gifts are Sacred until the Deal Strikes

This paper examines gifting, a complicated cultural practice that can be joyful, stressful, guilt-driven, and can sometimes evoke envy and burden. The aim of this research is to see if the level of price discount of a gift item influences people to purchase for a gift an item that is not perfect (i.e., “tainted”) and which may influence the degree to which it is considered material, thus taking some of the sacredness out of the gift offering. In particular, we examine gifting behavior across different age groups when discount levels vary. MANOVA results show that the age of consumers have an effect on buying a tainted and discounted gift. Specifically, younger consumers seem to be highly value-conscious and are comfortable with purchasing a tainted gift at a lower price even if the savings is small. Further results and implications will be discussed.