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December 29, 2014 Do You Self-Gift for Therapy or as a Reward? Experiments suggest that when buying gifts for themselves, shoppers (male or female) tend to choose feminine-seeming items such as slippers and lotions when the aim is to cheer themselves up but masculine-seeming items such as tools and pencils when attempting to reward themselves, says a team led by Suri Weisfeld-Spolter of Nova Southeastern University. The contrasting ideas of self-therapy and rewarding seem to suggest different gender identities, with the former priming a feminine identity and the latter priming a masculine identity, leading to the different choices of purchased items. 59% of shoppers report engaging in self-gifting when shopping, the researchers say. SOURCE: Impact of Giving on Self and Impact of Self on Giving

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