Mid-day Update

Mid-day Extra: Presents might not be worth what you think

Jeremy Hobson Dec 13, 2011

With less than two weeks to go before Christmas, you might be interested in this new scientific research. Gift recipients, it turns out,  are not interested in expensive gifts.

And they might not even care if a gift took a lot of thought. Those two factors apparently bring more joy to the giver than the recipient.

One of the researchers tells the New York Times to just listen to what people say they want. He also says, get this: re-gifting is OK.

In today’s Mid-day Extra, we ask: why do we put so much effort into gifts during the holidays?

We chatted about the study with one of its researchers, Gabe Adams, who is now a professor at London Business School.

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