To earmark or not to earmark when gift-giving: Gift-givers' and gift-recipients' diverging preferences for earmarked cash gifts

Much research has shed light on the what to give facet of gift-giving; that is, which types of products should consumers give as gifts? However, little research has investigated the how to give component of gift-giving; that is, holding the gift itself constant, how should it be given? In the present work, we explore the messaging aspect of how to give, thereby expanding the gift-giving literature. Specifically, we investigate gift-givers' and gift-recipients' preferences regarding the practice of earmarking cash gifts (i.e., suggesting that a cash gift be used on a particular product). Across multiple studies, we demonstrate that givers are less likely to earmark cash gifts than recipients prefer, because givers view earmarking as less thoughtful compared to recipients. Moreover, consistent with a thoughtfulness account, we show that givers are more likely to earmark in situations where they view earmarking as thoughtful. We conclude by discussing how our work offers a unique contribution to the gift-giving literature (as it is the first to document a giver-recipient asymmetry involving how to give), suggests that givers should earmark cash gifts more often, and clears many paths for future research (on other potential giver-recipient asymmetries tied to how to give).