So, dear partner Cheryl and I have very different gift-buying experiences .... She seems to stress a great deal about what she's getting me. I generally don't stress as much. I get a couple of things I'm confident about and kinda color in the details.
Which is why I thought of her when I saw this, from a Journal of Consumer Research news release (via Boing Boing):
"Our results suggest that familiarity caused [people] to put an overly heavy weight on pre-stored information. The pre-stored information that people possess about their partner is extensive. This elaborate knowledge makes predictors overly confident, such that they do not even attend to product-specific attitude feedback.”
Boing Boing's spin is that this is why it's so hard to pick out a gift for a loved one, i.e., one is overwhelmed by their certainty that their dear partner or family member is more like them than they really are. But I read this with the concern you might expect from someone who recognizes her own overconfidence (on a good day). Yeah, I know Cheryl and I have different tastes. But do I REALLY use that knowledge when I shop, or am I buying her things that are all too colored with my own desires/taste?
I actually like getting gifts that are as much or more a reflection of my loved one's tastes than mine, when I like their taste (as I do with Cheryl). In a way, it's like seeing myself through another person's eyes. Sometimes, it's seeing myself perhaps as the other person would like me to be.
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