What’s Your Gift-Appreciation Profile?

Last year, I launched my Gift–Giving Quiz to address that common challenge: having no idea what gift to give someone.

This quiz helps!

It identifies your recipient’s “gift-appreciation profile”:

Knowing a recipient’s type will help spark fresh ideas for the types of gifts they’ll love.

But here’s the surprising thing—

Often, when I suggest an idea or framework, people add their own twist in ways that didn’t occur to me.

With the Gift–Giving Quiz, people use it for a purpose that I didn’t foresee—but which, I now realize, is absolutely obvious. They take the quiz for themselves, to understand their own preferences.

When I took my own quiz, I discovered that I’m an Easy-to-Please. Strange as it may sound, I didn’t know that about myself before I took the quiz—even though I created the quiz!

Knowing that I’m an Easy-to-Please has helped me identify gifts that I’d like to ask for. (In my family, we exchange lots of holiday gifts, and each person is expected to provide a list of several things they’d like to receive, to make the gift selection process easier.)

According to the quiz, Easy-to-Please recipients can be happy with many types of gifts, and are particularly gratified when you explain why you chose a particular item with them in mind. They’re open to trying new things and often enjoy receiving items that you personally use and recommend.

I can tell family members, “I know you love using X. I’d like to try it, too” and “I love an inside-joke kind of gift.”

For instance, I love the Parks and Recreation mug that my sister Elizabeth gave me. Parks and Rec is one of my favorite TV shows, and Elizabeth is a true connoisseur of mugs, and it makes me happy every time I use it.

Sometimes people say, “If you define me, you confine me” and resist categories. But I find that it’s often very clarifying to have the loose, large categories—they help us see ourselves more clearly, and to understand how other people’s preferences.

Click here to take the quiz for yourself or someone on your gift list.