The stats of Valentine’s Day

Yes folks, a new year, a new set of blogs….  And since it’s approaching that time of year (Valentine’s Day), I thought I’d write about that 🙂

The typical feelings about Valentine’s Day varies depending on whether you are male or female, single or in a relationship, and for obvious reasons.  The stereotypes are that women expect to be pampered, men are expected to go all out doing the pampering and those not in a relationship spend the day either moping around or proudly proclaiming their independence.  As a girl myself, I would expect my fella to make some kind of effort!  But I’m also ashamed to admit that until now I haven’t given much thought as to how much pressure this puts on the guys…. is there actual evidence that on one specific day, men can feel more pressure than women?  If there *is* this pressure, do men tend to dread Valentine’s Day?  This also got me wondering what reasons people have to give presents; if they feel so stressed, why would they want to give presents at all?  So this is what I’ll be looking at 🙂

Otnes, Ruth and Milbourne (1994) did a qualitative study which focused solely on the male perspective of Valentine’s Day, as previous studies had focused on womens’.  They found that men do feel as if there is a negative pressure to participate in Valentine’s Day, but also that they enjoy giving gifts to their significant others despite this.  This to me is cute; blokes putting in the effort despite feeling the pressure to!  It’s also reassuring that they appear to enjoy spoiling us ladies.
However, a pilot study by Goodwin, Smith and Spiggle (1990) made me a tad concerned….  They found that ‘consumers tend to define gift giving as obligatory or voluntary, and [also] that this distinction affects their gift selection process and post-purchase behaviors.’  Basically, depending on whether people want to give gifts just because, or whether they feel that they have to – for a certain holiday for example – the gift that they would give differs, as does their behaviour.  Does this mean that presents given to us girls on Valentine’s Day (obligatory gift-giving) would be worse than the gifts our blokes would give us on any random day simply because they felt like it (voluntary gift-giving)?  Does it also mean that they would feel and act differently after the giving?  Are they giving us presents because they mean it, or just because they feel that they have to….?

Many men feel that it is all down to them on Valentine’s Day, for them to make the effort.  Rugimbana et al. (2003) support this by claiming that there is a social power relationship between the genders on Valentine’s Day.  These findings also back up what I mentioned earlier; that it is stereotyped that men are the ones who are supposed to do the pampering and women are the ones who are to be pampered.  These stereotypes may have occured due to the proposed social power relationship.

Whether it’s due to social pressures, simply what is expected or because they enjoy spoiling us, overall it looks as though it’s up to the fellas to do the work on the 14th February.  There is research into the topic, but personally I prefer the idea that men want to treat us well, and are being chivalrous.  Deluded, you might say, but it may be the case!  In about a week and half, regardless of your gender or relationship status, I hope you all have a happy Valentine’s Day.

 

 

References:

• Otnes, Ruth and Milbourne (1994) — http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=7578
• Goodwin, Smith and Spiggle (1990) — http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.122/abstract
• Rugimbana et al. (2003) — http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=7086&print=1