If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

LIFESTYLE

Most Americans Like To Give Gifts

Despite the stress and the expense of shopping at this time of year, Americans overwhelmingly like the idea of giving gifts.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 82% of Adults consider gift giving something they like to do. Just eight percent (8%) regard it more as an obligation. Ten percent (10%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty percent (60%) of employed Americans, in fact, give gifts to someone they work with. Thirty-seven percent (37%) do not.

While gift giving is viewed as a positive, American adults are evenly divided over whether the holiday season overall is joyful or stressful.

Also, amidst all the giving at this time of year, everyone inevitably gets a few gifts that they really don’t want or need. This has given rise to the practice of regifting, giving someone a gift that was previously given to you.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of Adults say they have regifted, while 59% say they never have.

Fourteen percent (14%) say they even have received a regifted item that they had previously given to someone. Seventy-eight percent (78%) have been spared that embarrassment.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 14-15, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Want to read more?

Become a Rasmussen Reader to read the article

Have an account?

Log In

Become a Reader

Subscribe

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.