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The science of giving gifts your loved ones won’t want to return
送礼的科学：怎样送礼你的挚爱不会退还？

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.
努力为朋友或者家人找到一份理想的，或者至少不会被扔掉的礼物，总是会引起人们的节前焦虑。

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.
事实上，行为科学能提供一些帮助。毕竟，送礼结合了经济学与心理学，而且这两大学术领域在最近几年已变得越来越不可分离。因此在纠结于理清这些出现在你节日送礼清单上的人们的喜好、讨厌、怪癖、以及愿望之前，你可能会想要参考一些关于哪些送礼策略会奏效的最新发现。

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.
在一些关于送礼的领域里，研究处于不断的变化中。在过去大约 15 年中，行为经济学的公认观点是购买体验，或者将体验作为礼物赠送，从长远来看，比购买实物能产生更多快乐。因此，举个例子，与其给你的姐妹购买一台厨房搅拌机，不如考虑把当地大厨的烹饪课作为礼物送给她。

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.
体验被认为胜过物质商品有多个原因，其中一个主要原因是人们倾向于独自使用物质的东西，体验则常常会与他人分享。而物质商品很容易与它的竞品或者与朋友或熟人拥有的物品相比，从而滋生不满。体验更加特殊，能够有效地防止这种比较。

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击了“购买体验”这一公认观点。两位来自英属哥伦比亚大学的学术心理学家发现，被当作是礼物的物品能产生适中而持续的快乐，而被当作礼物赠予的体验会令人迸发出短暂而强烈的快乐。因此，有些时候，送礼取决于你希望传达哪种快乐。

—————文章来源 / 华盛顿邮报

重点词汇
perennial/pəˈreniəl/
adj. 长期存在的；经久不衰的；反复发生的

gift-giving/ˈɡɪft-ɡɪvɪŋ/
n. 送礼

entwined/ɪnˈtwaɪnd/
adj. 紧密结合的，不可分离的

• The fates of both countries are entwined.

sort through
整理，筛选，理清

• sort through information

quirk/kwɜːrk/
n. 怪癖；古怪之处

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

in flux
处于不断的变化中

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

over the long run
长期上，长远来看

• in the short run

trump/trʌmp/
v. 打败，胜过

• trump another player’s cards

acquaintance/əˈkweɪntəns/
n. 熟人；相识之人；泛泛之交

• a business acquaintance
• a casual acquaintance

discontentedness/ˌdɪskənˈtentɪdnəs/
n. 不满情绪；不满足

idiosyncratic/ˌɪdiəsɪŋˈkrætɪk/
adj. 特殊的

• idiosyncrasy

push back against sth.
反击…；拒绝…；排斥…

• Employees push back against the culture of overwork.

burst/bɜːrst/
n. 突然增加；爆发

• a burst of laughter / anger

come down to sth.
归结为…，取决于…

• It all comes down to money in the end.