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What You Don't Know About Gift Giving May Surprise You

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There are some useful tips to give gifts that make others and ourselves feel better. (Sigismund von Dobschütz/Wikimedia)
There are some useful tips to give gifts that make others and ourselves feel better. (Sigismund von Dobschütz/Wikimedia)

One of the universal complaints about this season is the frantic scramble to find the right gifts for whomever it is you have to shop for. How do you figure out what to give your friends, your family members, your spouse, your colleagues? For many of us, it can be a real struggle.

But a Harvard professor who has spent his career studying how giving affects human behavior has some surprising findings. His thesis: if you think money can't buy happiness, you're not spending it right.

Guest

Michael Norton, psychologist and associate professor at Harvard Business School. His latest book is "Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending"

This segment aired on December 20, 2013.

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