Turns out it’s the guy who might care more.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to the Times
Los Angeles Times – Health Section
December 15, 2008
It’s Christmas Eve. You’ve just exchanged presents with your special — or soon-to-be-special — someone, when you hear the lackluster response: “Uh, gee, thanks.”
Is a bombed gift the kiss of death for your future together? Or a funny story to share years hence?
Research published in August suggests the answer is different for men and women and, perhaps surprisingly, it’s the men who care more.
In a psychology experiment at the University of Virginia, when men got a rotten gift that was supposedly from their long-term girlfriend (in this case, a gift certificate from a store they hated), they were more likely to decide the girlfriend was very different from them, and they were more pessimistic about their chances of staying together and getting married.
But women who got bum gifts reacted in the opposite way — they tended to declare their boyfriends were even more similar to them, and their views on the future of the relationship were left undamaged.
Why the difference? Getting a lousy gift is a small warning sign, researchers speculate: If your significant other can’t figure out where you shop, there’s probably a lot more missing. Men react to this red flag by downgrading the odds of the relationship’s survival. But women unconsciously protect the relationship instead, by making excuses for their boyfriend and his lousy taste.
Tags: Health, holidays, LA Times, psychology, relationships, Science