Handmade Gifts Top Machine-Made Products for Loved Ones

Stockbyte/Thinsktock(NEW YORK) — Who wouldn’t want to receive a gift that was made with tender, loving care?

Certainly, most mass-produced merchandise doesn’t really fall into that category, no matter how good the quality of the workmanship might be.

Researchers from Cornell and two European universities tested this theory on a group of people who were told to choose from a list of products, including soaps and stationary that were either machine-made or handcrafted with certain extras such as labels that read “made with love.”

When the participants were asked which items they’d most likely chose for a loved one, the hand-made merchandise by far was the runaway winner with people admitting that they’d even pay more money than what the products were listed for.

According to the researchers, “emphasizing the handmade aspect of a product can make it significantly more attractive, especially when consumers want to convey love to someone.”

Think Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas, for instance.

The study was published in Journal of Marketing.

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