Flashback Friday: Science gives the green light to regifting.

Photo: flickr/asenat29The holiday season is in full swing, and you might already have received some odd, cheap, or just plain ugly gifts from well-meaning givers. Thus begins the eternal dilemma: do you keep the gift and just toss it out during your next spring cleaning? Or do you make the best of the situation and regift it, hoping the original giver never finds out? Implicit here is the assumption that the original giver would be offended to find out you regifted (the gift was meant for you, of course). But would he or she be more offended at the gift being thrown away? In this study, the researchers asked participants to imagine these different scenarios and then asked them how offensive each option seemed. For the imaginary receivers, regifting was tantamount to throwing the gift away in terms of offensiveness. However, for the gifters, regifting was overwhelmingly the preferred--and less ...