Assessing individuals' re-gifting motivations

This research investigates individuals' motivations to pass gifts on to other people, a practice known as re-gifting. In three studies, we develop and test a tridimensional scale of re-gifting motivations that encompasses: an individualistic motivation, whereby the re-gifter tries to maximize his/her personal utility; a detachment motivation, whereby the re-gifter seeks to preserve his or her relational distance from the re-giftee and/or the first giver; and a virtuous motivation, which captures the re-gifter's morally and socially desirable intent to benefit the re-giftee and/or preserve the material value of the gift. The individualistic and detachment motivations are stronger when the re-giftee is a distant other, whereas the virtuous motivation is stronger when the re-giftee is a close other. These results shed light on the social function of re-gifting and suggest that, despite often being stigmatized as a censurable behavior, this practice can sometimes be driven by a morally acceptable motivation.