One Answer To All Of Your Holiday Shopping Questions

So many people, so many gifts! How can we increase the odds that everyone will be happy with your gift for them? Barbara Bickart, an associate professor of marketing and a Dean’s Research Fellow at the School of Management at Boston University, has an answer that sounds too easy: find something you like and buy it for everyone. “There’s research that shows people try to be very thoughtful when giving a gift and give everybody something different and really designed for them” Bickart tells BU Today. “It turns out that people just want something good. Often your idea of getting each person something different doesn’t result in the greatest amount of satisfaction from the receiver. So one strategy is to get everybody the same thing, or something you would like, or that might be common across everybody. It may not look as good as you’re giving the gift, but it’s going to save you energy and the receiver is probably going to be happier.” Read more tips on holiday shopping from BU Today.