Be Careful How You Wrap Those Presents.

The pressure to find the perfect presents for friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances continues to increase--but what about how the gift looks when it is presented? According to Jessica and Brett Rixom, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, the way people wrap presents can impact the expectations of the item under the wrapping.

Each year, Americans spend more than $3,200,000,000 on gift wrapping, yet little is known about the effects of wrapping on how recipients react to the gifts inside. While some may expect that the neater the wrapping of the present, the higher the satisfaction with the gift, the couple's research finds the opposite is true.

"When we wrap a gift neatly for a friend, we may anticipate that they will be more satisfied with what is inside," says Jessica Rixom, assistant professor of marketing. "Our research found when gifts are wrapped neatly, and given to a friend, it raises the expectations of the gift inside, resulting in our friends liking the gift less. However, with sloppy wrapping, our friends set their expectations lower and will actually like the gift more."

Rixom, along with her husband Brett, assistant professor of accounting, and Erick Mas at the Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., formally began researching the...