Overcoming Resource Scarcity: Consumers’ Response to Gifts Intending to Save Time and Money

Alice Lee-Yoon, Grant E. Donnelly and Ashley V. Whillans

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2020, vol. 5, issue 4, 391 - 403

Abstract: Consumers feel increasingly pressed for time and money. Gifts have the potential to reduce scarcity in recipients’ lives, yet little is known about how recipients perceive gifts given with the intention of saving them time or money. Across five studies (N=1,816), we demonstrate that the recipients of gifts intending to save money experience more negative emotions and infer a lower status position than recipients of gifts intending to save time. Recipients experiencing greater financial scarcity (who may benefit most from gifts intending to save them money), experience negative emotions to a greater extent and perceive an even lower status position than recipients who experience relatively little financial scarcity. These findings are the first to directly evaluate the implications of receiving gifts seeking to address time and money scarcity and suggest that recipients may respond negatively to gifts given with the intention of saving money.

Date: 2020
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