Cultural differences in gift recipients’ attitude and behavior toward disliked gifts

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of cultural differences and the types of relationship closeness involved in recipients’ emotional and behavioral reactions after receiving disliked gifts.

Collecting data from Thailand and the USA, two experiments were conducted in a 2 (self-construal: independent/interdependent) × 2 (relationship closeness: close/distant) between-subjects design. Study 1 explores the recipients’ feelings and reactions upon receipt of a disliked gift. Study 2 explores the disposition process for a disliked gift.

The results show that a recipient’s emotions, reaction and disposition process can be affected by cultural differences and relationship closeness: specifically that close and distant relationships moderate the relationship between self-construal and gift-receiving attitudes and behaviors.

Future research can investigate representative groups from other countries to broaden the generalizability of the findings.

This understanding can guide gift-givers when selecting gifts for close or distant recipients across cultures. Additionally, it can help retailers develop and introduce new marketing strategies by applying self-construal as a marketing segmentation tool for gift purchase and disposition.

This research is among the first studies to offer insights into how individuals in different cultures manage disliked gifts they receive from people in either close or distant relationships.