Research On The Antecedents And Effects Of Gift Image Consistency In Romantic Relationships

Most of previous researches on consumer decisions have given priority to the procedures and results of a determination made by people.These works are grounded on two basic assumptions.First,most choices reflect decisions made by individuals.Second,consumer decisions are primarily determined by one's own personal attitudes,beliefs,and preferences.A shortage of the research has been that excessive attention has been paid on individual-level process,without considering the extensive social context in which many decisions are made.Simpson,Griskevicius,and Rothman(2012)identify an understudied area in consumer research(namely,decision making in relationships),indicating that situational factors(e.g.,partner's preferences and the relationship between the actor and the partner)should be taken into consideration of further research.In the current paper,we consider a ubiquitous context in which individuals make choices influenced by others:romantic gift giving.By studying the gift giving decisions,we hope to explain the basic and universal problems in decision making in relationships.We focus on the variable of gift image consistency which can reflect how much influence both relationship partners have on each other.Gift giving plays a symbolic role in communication of relationships.Gift givers manage meaning about who the giver is and who the recipient is.In romantic relationships,the purpose of giving gifts is mainly to advance the relationship.To achieve this goal,gift givers should choose a product that is suitable for the recipient,while still demonstrating the giver's own self-image.Previous research indicate that in the choice of gifts for an important person,people often integrate one's own complex knowledge of the recipient with information about oneself,thus mixing the recipient's preferences with the giver's own likeness.Thus,when choosing a romantic gift,a giver is motivated to make the gift's image be consistent with that of giver(gift-giver consistency)and that of recipient(gift-recipient consistency).The variable of gift image consistency is used to capture both facets of this idea.More gift-recipient consistency reflects the giver is more strongly affected by what their partners prefer,whereas the opposite should be true of more gift-giver consistency.This study investigates gift exchange behaviors by romantic couples on Valentine's Day and explores the antecedents and effects of gift image consistency.It is acknowledged that type of relationship(e.g.,mother-son relationship,peer-to-peer relationship and business partnership)may influence gift exchange behaviors.In romantic relationship,gift giving is instrumental in self-disclosing and expressing concerns,and serves as a means of symbolic communication in relationships.The choice of a gift for romantic partner is more complex than choosing a gift for others because of the tension inherent in selecting a product that is appropriate for the romantic partner while still reflective of the giver's own self-image.Furthermore,it is also widely acknowledged that consumers engage in gift selection for others depending on the occasion.Compared to other occasions(e.g.,birthday and wedding anniversary),the nature of Valentine's Day has significant symbolic implication for both the giver and the recipient.Gift giving behavior on such occasion may be more intricate than other occasions because this ritual may be governed by the need for relationship development.It is found that under this occasion gift selection and giving is somewhat different,as the purchaser in this situation is likely to consider the recipient's needs and interests in the context of their own.In conclusion,what sets the Valentine's Day gift giving occasion apart from others is that it represents exclusively an occasion when individuals in a romantic relationship express both their self-images and their partner's self-images through strong symbolic gift giving.The emphasis on the interpersonal context,perhaps more than any other,provides a suitable situation to carry out the research on decision making in relationships.The limitations of the research on gift image consistency are listed blew.First,past research has identified many characteristics that affect the gift consistency during the gift giving.Typically,researchers of gift giving have investigated how the givers'tailoring of their gift image consistency depends on their personal traits.There are limited studies have explored the effect of the dyadic relationship dynamics on how gift giving decisions are made.Second,the existing studies were inconclusive about the relationship between gift image consistency and recipient appreciation of the gift.Past research generally believes that gift appreciation largely due to the match between gift images and recipients' self-images.In contrast,recent research indicated that gifts are also appreciated when they match givers' self-images.As such,the existing literature remains inconclusive whether gift-giver consistency or gift-recipient consistency exerts stronger effects on gift appreciation.Third,there are especially rare research have looked into the dark side of gift giving.Purchasing a gift that runs counter to the giver's self-image meeting the demand of the intended recipient may pose an image threat to the person who gives the gift.The existing research has not paid sufficient attention to the negative role of giver image threat.Based on the above three research gaps,we focus on romantic gift giving decisions,and attempt to explore the following three studies:Study 1:Based on interdependence theory,we investigate how relationship dependence between romantic couples can affect gift image consistency.According to the results,the giver's level of dependence plays a positive role in the consistency between the recipient's self-image and gift image(gift-recipient consistency),and plays a negative role in the consistency between the giver's self-image and gift image(gift-giver consistency).The mutuality of dependence could strengthen or weaken the effect of the giver's level of dependence on gift image consistency,and this effect is carried through the giver's relationship power.Study 2:We compare the effects of gift-recipient consistency and gift-giver consistency on the recipient's gift appreciation with the same sample.We further investigate the contingent effects of intimacy and the recipient's relationship dependence on the gift consistency-gift appreciation relationship.The results show that gift-recipient consistency has a positive effect on the recipient's gift appreciation,while the effect of gift-giver consistency on gift appreciation is non-significant or even negative.Intimacy and relationship dependence of recipients attenuate both the negative impact of gift-giver consistency and the positive effect of gift-recipient consistency on the recipient's gift appreciation.Study 3:We propose and test a research model by positing that image threat affects giver's perceived relationship closeness through the mediation of giver's positive affect.Furthermore,we examine how communal strength moderates this mediation.Hierarchical regression and moderated mediation analyses show that,with the increase of communal strength,giver image threat has weaker negative influence on giver's positive affect,which,in turn,influences giver's perceived relationship closeness.This article contributes to the decision making in relationships and gift giving literature in several ways:First,we extend relationship decisions research into a significant consumer context,gift giving,in which individuals select gifts that carry the images of both the giver and the recipient.Study 1 improves our understanding of how relationship partners influence one another as they make decisions.Study 2 shows the experiences of the decision-maker when she/he uses the product that is selected by joint-decision making.Study 3 reveals the inner feelings of individuals when they buy the things opposing their individual self-images for catering on others.Second,it is generally acknowledged that this is one of the few researches have considered decision making in relationships and gift giving from a dyadic relationship perspective.Most research on decision making and gift giving has been an overly narrow focus on the decision maker's personal traits,rather than the nature of relationships.The current research brings relationships into decision making and gift giving.The findings could deepen our comprehending of how the nature of the relationship can affect decision making in relationships.Third,past studies were inconclusive about the relationship between gift image consistency and recipient appreciation of the gift.To address the contradictory view,the current study compares the relative effects of gift giver consistency and gift recipient consistency on the recipient's appreciation in romantic relationships.Furthermore,this study begins to shed light on how the nature of the relationships between romantic couples affects the gift consistency-gift appreciation relationship.Fourth,previous research on gift-giving has focused on whether and how givers succeed in choosing gifts that match recipients' self-image.On the contrary,the current research indicated that a gift giver may feel uncomfortable choosing a gift that is inconsistent with his/her self-image,but will be motivated to please the recipient.Given that researchers have rarely looked into the dark side of gift giving.To the best of our knowledge,this is the first research to consider the negative effect of giver image threat on the giver's perceived relationship closeness.