In Giving Financial Gifts to Friends and Family, Some Ways Are Better Than Others

Grant  Donnelly; A.V.  Whillans

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Editorial | Wall Street Journal | May 1, 2020

In Giving Financial Gifts to Friends and Family, Some Ways Are Better Than Others

by Grant Donnelly and A.V. Whillans

Abstract

With the pandemic forcing millions of Americans into financial distress, it is only natural to want to lend friends and family a hand. But giving them a gift to help them out can do a lot of harm—unless you do it the right way.

Keywords: gift giving; Money; Family and Family Relationships; Relationships;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Donnelly, Grant, and A.V. Whillans. "In Giving Financial Gifts to Friends and Family, Some Ways Are Better Than Others." Wall Street Journal (May 1, 2020). (Shared Authorship.)

About the Author

Ashley V. Whillans

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action

Kevin M. Kniffin, Jayanth Narayanan, Frederik Anseel, John Antonakis, Susan Ashford, Arnold B. Bakker, Peter Bamberger, Hari Bapuji, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Virginia K. Choi, Stephanie Creary, Evangelia Demerouti, Francis J. Flynn, Michele J. Gelfand, Lindred Greer, Gary Johns, Selin Kesebir, Peter G. Klein, Sun Young Lee, Hakan Ozcelik, Jennifer Louise Petriglieri, Nancy Rothbard, Cort W. Rudolph, Jason D. Shaw, Nina Sirola, Connie R. Wanberg, Ashley Whillans, Michael P. Wilmot and Mark van Vugt

COVID-19’s impacts on workers and workplaces across the globe have been dramatic. We present a broad review of prior research rooted in work and organizational psychology, and related fields, for making sense of the implications for employees, teams, and work organizations. Our review and preview of relevant literatures focuses on: (i) emerging changes in work practices (e.g., working from home, virtual teams) and (ii) economic and social-psychological impacts (e.g., unemployment, mental well-being). In addition, we examine the potential moderating factors of age, race and ethnicity, gender, family status, personality, and cultural differences to generate disparate effects. Illustrating the benefits of team science, our broad-scope overview provides an integrative approach for considering the implications of COVID-19 for work and organizations while also identifying issues for future research and insights to inform solutions.

Keywords: COVID-19; work; work from home (WFH); Pandemics; Health Pandemics; Employees; Organizational Change and Adaptation;

Citation:
Kniffin, Kevin M., Jayanth Narayanan, Frederik Anseel, John Antonakis, Susan Ashford, Arnold B. Bakker, Peter Bamberger, Hari Bapuji, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Virginia K. Choi, Stephanie Creary, Evangelia Demerouti, Francis J. Flynn, Michele J. Gelfand, Lindred Greer, Gary Johns, Selin Kesebir, Peter G. Klein, Sun Young Lee, Hakan Ozcelik, Jennifer Louise Petriglieri, Nancy Rothbard, Cort W. Rudolph, Jason D. Shaw, Nina Sirola, Connie R. Wanberg, Ashley Whillans, Michael P. Wilmot, and Mark van Vugt. "COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-127, June 2020. View Details

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Article | Collabra: Psychology | 2020

Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time

Ashley V. Whillans, Alice Lee-Yoon and Elizabeth W. Dunn

Spending money on time-saving services can improve happiness and reduce stress. Yet many people do not spend money to save time even when they can afford to do so, potentially because they feel guilty about paying other people to complete disliked tasks on their behalf. Consistent with this proposition, we find evidence that individuals are most likely to experience guilt when outsourcing to a salient service provider. Across two large-scale surveys of working adults, including a nationally representative sample of employed Americans (Study 1a & 1b, N = 1,140), individuals reported greater guilt when they thought about outsourcing to a salient (vs. non-salient) service provider. Using a novel lab paradigm, participants felt greater guilt when the service provider was salient, which in turn undermined their willingness to buy time (Study 2, N = 350). In Study 3, these effects were mitigated by emphasizing the benefits of task completion for the service provider (N = 390). This research points to the potential of simple interventions to help organizations encourage individuals to make time-saving purchases.

Keywords: time; identifiable victim effect; Social Support; Money; Happiness; Attitudes;

Citation:
Whillans, Ashley V., Alice Lee-Yoon, and Elizabeth W. Dunn. "Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time." Art. 28. Collabra: Psychology 6 (2020). View Details

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Editorial | Harvard Business Review Digital Articles | April 22, 2020

Why You Miss Those Casual Friends So Much

Gillian M. Sandstrom and A.V. Whillans

On a typical day, we interact with somewhere between 11 and 16 casual acquaintances—for example, the barista we see every morning or the colleague we greet in the hallway. During the Covid-19 pandemic, with many of us practicing physical distancing, these once-common interactions have disappeared, and our social ties have been limited to more formal, scheduled—and often exhausting—check-ins with family and close friends. The authors offer suggestions on how to repurpose the informality and spontaneity of weak-tie interactions to help us stay connected while reducing the risk of burnout.

Keywords: psychology; Interpersonal Communication;

Citation:
Sandstrom, Gillian M., and A.V. Whillans. "Why You Miss Those Casual Friends So Much." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (April 22, 2020). (Shared Authorship.) View Details

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In Giving Financial Gifts to Friends and Family, Some Ways Are Better Than Others

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