Gift-giving in romantic couples serves as a commitment signal: Relational mobility is associated with more frequent gift-giving

Abstract

The present study explored why married couples periodically exchange gifts. Based on the commitment signal hypothesis, we tested whether relational mobility, which was operationalized as divorce rate in Study 1 and relational opportunities in Study 2, is positively correlated with the frequency of gift exchanges among married couples. In Study 1, we found that married couples in the U.S., which is associated with a relatively high divorce rate, were more likely to give and receive gifts to and from their partners than those in Japan, which is associated with a relatively low divorce rate. This societal difference, in contrast, was not observed among unmarried couples, who were still developing their relationship (and thus, partner changes could frequently happen regardless of the country-level divorce rate). Study 2, a secondary analysis of extant survey data, revealed that Japanese married couples who have more relational opportunities more frequently engage in gift exchanges than those who do not. Together, these results support our hypothesis that periodical gift exchanges work as commitment signals among married couples.