Gift-giving is an economically significant area of consumer behavior. For we are constantly buy gifts: for Christmas and Mother's Day, for birth and baptism, for the start of school and exams, for engagements and weddings, for birthdays or as souvenirs. Moreover, gift-giving is a very important psychological phenomenon, based on voluntariness, but also representing a duty and requiring compliance with rules. Thus, gift giving is by no means always associated with joy, but also with stress in the search for a perfect gift and disappointment when gifts fail. The book presents central results of psychological research on gift-giving. These provide answers to the following questions, among others: What 'secret' rules of giving and receiving do we follow? What messages do we send with our gifts? How do certain characteristics - such as the amount of the price or empathy - influence satisfaction with a Gift-giving is an economically significant area of consumer behavior. For we are constantly buy gifts: for Christmas and Mother's Day, for birth and baptism, for the start of school and exams, for engagements and weddings, for birthdays or as souvenirs. Moreover, gift-giving is a very important psychological phenomenon, based on voluntariness, but also representing a duty and requiring compliance with rules. Thus, gift giving is by no means always associated with joy, but also with stress in the search for a perfect gift and disappointment when gifts fail. The book presents central results of psychological research on gift-giving. These provide answers to the following questions, among others: - What 'secret' rules of giving and receiving do we follow? - What messages do we send with our gifts? - How do certain characteristics - such as the amount of the price or empathy - influence satisfaction with a gift? - What mistakes should we avoid when giving gifts in romantic relationships? - When is a monetary gift appropriate and when is it not? The Author Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. em. Bernd Stauss held the Chair of Service Management at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. What mistakes should we avoid when giving gifts in romantic relationships? When is a monetary gift appropriate and when is it not? The presentation of psychological gift-giving research is supplemented by references to gift-giving episodes in fiction by authors such as Paul Auster, Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Mitchell, and Thomas Mann. These illustrate the scientific findings and allow us to emo