gift giving

I've never been a good gift giver. I'm just not that creative. It could mean something more than that though. I think its something that has a deeper psychological and, of course, economic meaning.

Gift giving provides a keen signaling affect which represent an investment in the relationship. In romantic relationships, people can easily say something that doesn’t truly represent their own feelings.

Even personally, I have told a girl that I was romantically interested in her when that wasn’t the truth, just to escape the drama that is associated when someone is heart broken. It took very little effort on my part to say such things. That separation from the truth is essentially a market failure due to the asymmetric information I created with my lie.

To enter into a relationship, a contract is essentially made. You are pledging to invest your time, effort, emotions, and money into the individual you entered the relationship into. Whereas time is easily monitored, it is much harder to determine effort or emotions. Gift giving signals that you invested thought into the person to get an appropriate gift and put emotion into the gift by sacrificing your money, which would otherwise go to things you value and enjoy. It is a commonly used tool to show commitment towards the relationship.

Dare to disagree?