Construal Level Theory
The idea that psychological distance changes how abstractly something is thought about.
What it is
Baskin, Wakslak, Trope and Novemsky applied it to gifts: givers, standing further from the gift, think of it more abstractly and weigh desirability, while receivers, who will use it, lean towards feasibility. The idea is credited to Yaacov Trope and Nira Liberman (2010).
In effect
The article on why gift-giving is stressful uses it to explain why the same gift is weighed differently from the shop and from the opening.
What it does not say
It is a general account of psychological distance. The gift studies apply it to one setting and do not say that distance decides every choice a giver makes.
Sources
- Baskin, E., Wakslak, C. J., Trope, Y., & Novemsky, N. (2014). Why feasibility matters more to gift receivers than to givers: A construal-level approach to gift giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(1), 169-182.