Last year, Americans spent over $30 billion at retail (零售) stores in the month of December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other occasions throughout the year, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can create ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many believe that gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger bonds with intended receivers. At the same time, many worry that their purchases will disappoint rather than delight the intended receivers.
Anthropologists (人类学家) describe gift-giving as a positive social process, serving various political, religious, and psychological functions. Economists, however, offer a less favorable view. They think that gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources. People buy gifts that receivers would not choose to buy on their own, or at least not spend as much money to purchase. Givers are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and gift-receivers, but still tend to overspend each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift. In the present research, psychologists find a unique explanation for this overspending problem — gift-givers equate (等同) how much they spend with how much receivers will appreciate the gift. Although a link between gift price and feelings of appreciation might seem relevant to gift-givers, such an assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we find that gift-receivers will be less willing to base their feelings of appreciation on the gift price than givers assume.
The thoughts of gift-givers and gift-receivers being unable to account for the other party’s perspective (立场) seems puzzling because people slip in and out of these roles every day. Yet, despite the extensive experience that people have as both givers and receivers, they often struggle to transfer information gained from one role and apply it in another.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “ambivalent” in Paragraph1 probably mean?| A．Concerned. | B．Positive. |
| C．Unrealistic. | D．Conflicting. |
| A．It strengthens the bonds between people. |
| B．It is economically beneficial to the receiver. |
| C．It is actually a process of wasting resources. |
| D．It increases the financial burden to the giver. |
| A．Personal preferences are the least to be considered. |
| B．Gift-givers tend to link the gift cost to gift-receivers’ appreciation. |
| C．More gift-receiving experience helps prevent overspending. |
| D．The assumption made by gift-givers turned out to be correct. |
| A．a trend of overspending |
| B．an inability to change perspectives |
| C．a growing opposition to gift-giving |
| D．a misunderstanding of gift-receivers’ tastes |
