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The science of giving gifts your loved ones won’t want to return
送禮的科學：怎樣送禮你的摯愛不會退還？

Trying to find an ideal gift for a friend or family member, or at least something that won’t end up in the trash, is a perennial source of pre-holiday anxiety.
努力為朋友或者家人找到一份理想的，或者至少不會被扔掉的禮物，總是會引起人們的節前焦慮。

As it happens, behavioral science can offer some help. After all, gift-giving combines economics and psychology, and those two academic fields have grown ever more entwined in recent years. So before struggling to sort through the likes, dislikes, quirks and wishes of the people on your holiday lists, you may want to consider some recent findings about which gift-giving strategies work.
事實上，行為科學能提供一些幫助。畢竟，送禮結合了經濟學與心理學，而且這兩大學術領域在最近幾年已變得越來越不可分離。因此在糾結於理清這些出現在你節日送禮清單上的人們的喜好、討厭、怪癖、以及願望之前，你可能會想要參考一些關於哪些送禮策略會奏效的最新發現。

In some areas of gift-giving, the research is in flux. For the past 15 years or so, the received wisdom in behavioral economics has been that buying experiences, or giving them as gifts, produces more happiness over the long run than purchased material things do. So instead of buying your sister a kitchen mixer, for instance, consider a gift of cooking lessons from a local chef.
在一些關於送禮的領域裡，研究處於不斷的變化中。在過去大約 15 年中，行為經濟學的公認觀點是購買體驗，或者將體驗作為禮物贈送，從長遠來看，比購買實物能產生更多快樂。因此，舉個例子，與其給你的姐妹購買一臺廚房攪拌機，不如考慮把當地大廚的烹飪課作為禮物送給她。

Experiences are thought to trump material goods for several reasons, chiefly because people tend to use material things on their own, whereas experiences are often shared with others. And material goods are easily compared against rival goods, or against things friends and acquaintances own, which fosters discontentedness. Experiences are more idiosyncratic, effectively blocking such comparisons.
體驗被認為勝過物質商品有多個原因，其中一個主要原因是人們傾向於獨自使用物質的東西，體驗則常常會與他人分享。而物質商品很容易與它的競品或者與朋友或熟人擁有的物品相比，從而滋生不滿。體驗更加特殊，能夠有效地防止這種比較。

Yet other researchers have recently pushed back against the “buy experiences” conventional wisdom. Two academic psychologists at the University of British Columbia found that objects received as gifts tend to produce modest and consistent happiness, whereas experiences given as gifts sparked brief, intense bursts of happiness. So sometimes it comes down to which kind of happiness you wish to convey.
然而其他研究者最近反擊了“購買體驗”這一公認觀點。兩位來自英屬哥倫比亞大學的學術心理學家發現，被當作是禮物的物品能產生適中而持續的快樂，而被當作禮物贈予的體驗會令人迸發出短暫而強烈的快樂。因此，有些時候，送禮取決於你希望傳達哪種快樂。

—————文章來源 / 華盛頓郵報

重點詞彙
perennial/pəˈreniəl/
adj. 長期存在的；經久不衰的；反覆發生的

gift-giving/ˈɡɪft-ɡɪvɪŋ/
n. 送禮

entwined/ɪnˈtwaɪnd/
adj. 緊密結合的，不可分離的

• The fates of both countries are entwined.

sort through
整理，篩選，理清

• sort through information

quirk/kwɜːrk/
n. 怪癖；古怪之處

• A quirk of Euro 2020 is that there are 12 host countries.

in flux
處於不斷的變化中

• Our plans for the next year are still in flux.

over the long run
長期上，長遠來看

• in the short run

trump/trʌmp/
v. 打敗，勝過

• trump another player’s cards

acquaintance/əˈkweɪntəns/
n. 熟人；相識之人；泛泛之交

• a business acquaintance
• a casual acquaintance

discontentedness/ˌdɪskənˈtentɪdnəs/
n. 不滿情緒；不滿足

idiosyncratic/ˌɪdiəsɪŋˈkrætɪk/
adj. 特殊的

• idiosyncrasy

push back against sth.
反擊…；拒絕…；排斥…

• Employees push back against the culture of overwork.

burst/bɜːrst/
n. 突然增加；爆發

• a burst of laughter / anger

come down to sth.
歸結為…，取決於…

• It all comes down to money in the end.