Giving and receiving gifts is so deeply ingrained in our societal behaviour that we hardly ever think about why we do it. However, we do tend to think of people that give us gifts more highly, regardless of whether it’s a friend, a colleague, a relative, or a total stranger.

This seems to be the primary reason why our ancestors started giving gifts in the first place. While maintaining friendships or putting people into a symbolic debt evolved as the main motives to give gifts later on, it all started with a way of identifying whether another person is a friend or an enemy. read more