All of us have close family members and friends who we like to make happy several times every year. Getting a gift for parents, a friend, a partner, or anyone else we care about is often a difficult choice that we are faced with every year. The closer the person is to us, the more we want to impress them. Sometimes finding a gift is really hard for many reasons. You are either not sure what the most appropriate gift for someone is, or you are facing a financial crisis in which you cannot afford an expensive gift.
Why is price correlated to emotional value?
Many people mistakenly believe that, the more expensive the gift is, the stronger the emotions that it is going to awaken. This kind of belief is present because of the way we perceive the world around ourselves. In the past couple of decades, materialistic values have seriously grown and shaped the perspective of millions around the world.
Even if you are not someone who appreciates material wealth, you are always going to look for a pricey gift to express how much you care for a person. This type behavior is occurring on a more subconscious level. This is the reason why people become stressed when they are in a financial situation where they cannot purchase something that they know that their close one would love.
Luckily, a study mentioned in the New York Times shows that the person receiving the gift does not value the cost of the gift, but the emotional value it carries. A person who had been given an iPod and a simple CD thinks and values both these gifts the same way, as each of them carry a certain emotional value. This is a clear indicator that it is not always necessary that you purchase the most expensive gift, but to look for something that will make your beloved one happy and awaken memorable emotions.
How to find the right gift?
In order to get the right gift for someone, you have to know them well. You can always spice up a conversation months before the important date occurs, or you can use some other techniques to find out what the person likes.
The more time you spend with a person, the higher the chances are that you are going to get to know what the right gift for that particular person is. On a more general level, you can spot the interests of a person and determine what type of gift is a nice idea. These are some of the ideas that would make different types of people happy:
- There practical people who always enjoy receiving gifts that they can actually use. There are a lot of things in this category that you could give away, all it takes is a little bit of research and getting to know what a person is missing in their inventory, once you have an idea, picking the gift is easy.
- Some people are fans of surprise parties and this form of gift takes a little bit of creativity in order to provide a memorable gift for your beloved one. However, it is going to be something that he or she is going to remember always.
- Some people are natural explorers, and organizing a short holiday is the perfect gift for them. This can sometimes be costly, depending on the location that you are planning to visit, however, you can read up on tips to help you save money while traveling.
These are only some general suggestions that are there to give you an idea of which direction you can go. What is important to remember is that a gift does not have to be expensive in order to show how you feel about someone. The point is to make the person you care for happy, and that is something that has no price tag. So the next time you are thinking about getting a gift for someone, remember that it should be something that they are really going to love and not something that will cost a lot of money, but be utterly useless.
