The Chemistry of Gift-Giving

Scientists doing MRI work on the human brain have found out some interesting things about the release of dopamine and oxytocin. What they've found, in short, is that adults get more pleasure from giving gifts than from receiving them. Children, on the other hand, get more pleasure from receiving gifts than giving them. Read more about the science and experiments here.

What does this have to do with sustainability? Knowing how to maximize pleasure from your holiday (or birthday) gift lists produces a more efficient use of material resources, thus making your gift-giving more sustainable. Why require the consumption of vast amounts of physical resources and energy production if your recipient isn't going to get a large amount of joy from your gift?

In that spirit, this Tree Hugger article lays down four suggestions for the most joyous use of gift resources.

1. "Children should never give gifts to adults - [K]ids get little joy from giving gifts, and adult receive little joy in receiving them. Why waste the planetary resources on creating the physical object? Forget these gifts." Instead, to incorporate a habit of giving rather than just greed and consumption in your children, consider asking them to volunteer with a charitable, educational, environmental, or non-profit organization for a few hours as their gift to you. In this way, children are learning to give back to the community and giving a gift that doesn't require any physical resources at all.

2. "Adults should always give gifts to children - Clearly, this is dopamine all around; adults enjoy giving, and kids enjoy receiving." This does not, of course, mean that you must give children store-bought or environmentally-damaging gifts. Hand-made, second-hand, or even temporary gifts work just as well to light up everyone's dopamine centers without harming the planet.

3. "Adults should give other adults gifts, that are in themselves gifts. This is a tricky one because adults like to give gifts but not receive them. Oftentimes, this one plays itself out as an agreement between parents and adult siblings that no gifts will be exchanged, then everyone goes ahead and buys something for everyone anyways because they want to make themselves feel good! In this case, the best course of action is to give nothing, which is ok and terrific for the environment, if you can deprive yourself of the joy. Another good idea is a donation to the charity of their choice." You don't have to deprive yourself of the joy that giving gives you. Instead of the usual physical gifts, however, choose charitable, service, or consumable (food) gifts. Or give the recipient something s/he really needs, like new underwear or next semester's textbooks. Don't worry if you don't think your recipient will be overwhelmed with child-like joy; according to the science, adult gift recipients rarely are. If you give them something they really need, you are making their lives easier, which is an enormous gift in and of itself.

4. "Children should share in gifts with other children, that have no giver. - This one is even more tricky - how does one enjoy a gift that isn't even given? Aha, this is the miracle of the season, the true Christmas spirit. Frankly, how to generate this type of atmosphere is unclear but when it happens it feels great and is pretty low-impact on the planet - happy thoughts cost the Earth nothing. For starters, I suggest getting the kids high on sugar and let them run around hogwild..." This humorous description is a way of saying 'let the kids enjoy being kids.' Let them give each other the gift of their companionship and fun.