“These studies examined the psychology involved in giving and receiving gift cards. All over the world, they showed that givers are less likely to choose digital—as opposed to physical—gift cards than recipients are to receive them. This asymmetry occurs in part because givers overestimate the extent to which recipients Digital gift cards violate the social norms of gift giving,” says Julian Givey, assistant professor of marketing at the Chambers College of Business and Economics.
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“For example, in our pilot study, we asked 96 participants whether it is socially more normative for the giver to give a physical or digital gift certificate,” Givi explains, “the vast majority of participants – 94.8% – chose the physical gift certificate.”