Selfish Prosocial Behavior: Gift-Giving to Feel Unique

Julian Givi and Jeff Galak

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2020, vol. 5, issue 1, 34 - 43

Abstract: Perhaps the most common form of prosocial behavior that consumers engage in is gift giving. In doing so, consumers presumably act in the best interests of recipients, by giving gifts that they believe recipients will cherish. That said, the results of five lab and field studies demonstrate that consumers sometimes do the opposite: they give gifts they do not believe to be best. Specifically, the present work shows that gift givers desire to feel unique and thus refrain from giving gifts that they own themselves, since doing so would devalue the uniqueness of those items and, consequently, the giver’s own uniqueness. Instead, givers opt for alternative gifts that they do not own, even when this may result in their recipients receiving less-preferred gifts. This work adds to the literature on motives influencing prosocial behavior by documenting a novel egocentric motive influencing decisions in the prosocial context of gift giving.

Date: 2020
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