Self-Gifting: What Could This Mean For Me?

Giving a gift to oneself, known as self-gifting, is considered to be a relatively new domain in consumer research. As a part of gift-giving literature, self-gifting has recently received more attention from consumer researchers due to the fact that it constitutes an important element in self-directed consumer behavior. The phenomenon of self-gifting has been perceived to be widely occurring in American society (Mick and DeMoss 1990a, 1990b) and to be fairly common and important, particularly in western consumer behavior (e.g. Mick and DeMoss 1990a, 1990b; Mick, DeMoss and Faber 1992). Not surprisingly, the subject has been largely ignored for non-American consumers. Sherry and his colleagues (1995) stated that there is a need to understand the self-gift behaviors of various types of consumers who are located and thoroughly embedded in their native cultures. Four papers included in the session present findings on the subject involving non-American consumers, and also provide valuable new insights regarding how self-gifting relates to individual emotions and self-concepts. In addition, the researchers from the USA, UK, Turkey, Thailand, and Japan address how self-gifting may be used as a way of balancing one’s emotional wellbeing in different cultures.