According to the Journal of Consumer Marketing females, compared to males, are found to start Christmas purchases much earlier, buy more gifts, and embark on a greater number of sprees.
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The Australian National Retailers Association concluded from a survey that men are two and a half times more likely to wait until the last couple of days to do holiday shopping.
Moreover, the National Retail Federation in the U.S. found similar results with 24% of men planning to buy gifts on the 22nd and 23rd of December.
And it turns out, men have (mostly) rational reasons and thoughts around waiting until the deadline.
Some men dread shopping
It’s a known fact that most men enjoy the experience of shopping far less than women. Males tend to be pragmatic shoppers, defining success as getting exactly what they came for, efficiently. Inherently implying that they want an in, out, success situation.
Females on the other hand tend to visit more stores, spend more time comparing, and often come back later to get what they decided on.
It’s not that these males dread being thoughtful or giving a gift, but not knowing what to get, how long it will take, and all the hassles that go along with selecting just the right thing.
Others are just optimists (or procrastinators)
Putting things off has different effects on different people. Some of us love the final push before a deadline; others get overwhelmed by the anxiety related to it. Procrastination often comes from a mistaken assumption that in the future someone will be in the right mindset to complete a task – overestimating the motivation they will have.
This can certainly be a product of dreading shopping, not wanting to deal with people in stores, or what is known as planning bias or planning fallacy.
Some men are just bad at planning
Nowadays, people don’t have time for anything, while in reality, it is a justification for their bad planning. Besides, ‘busy’ became a status symbol.
But it’s also true that the workload can slam you with end-of-year obligations and to-do list items – which includes holiday shopping.
Like many tasks that can take up a lot of time and energy, it’s easier to put those off to tackle the few emails in front of you or become paralyzed by the number of items to get done and complete none of them.
People who do this most likely really care about the task (or gift) and the person receiving it, and thus the idea of taking it on becomes a matter of time management.
Not all men understand the importance of gifts
According to the Good Men Project, ‘it may be true that more men have Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation as their love language and more women have Quality Time and Gifts.’ Thus, gifts simply may not mean to men what they do to women – giving or receiving.
For some men, last-minute shopping equals an adrenaline rush
According toresearch, procrastination can become an addiction due to the short-term rewards of putting off a task we don’t want to complete and the rush of adrenaline we get when we’re up against a doom-filled deadline.
As men are known for their risk-taking skills, many may find it fun to run around the mall in the final hours before said deadline.
Sources used:
- Forbes: 'The Psychology Of Why Men Wait Until Christmas Eve To Shop'
- Journal of Consumer Marketing: 'Gender differences in information search strategies for a Christmas gift'
- Australian National Retailers Association
- Good Men Project: 'Five Reasons Men Love to Leave Christmas Shopping Until the Last Minute'
