Studies show that gifts lift moods better than kind words.

The study found that a gift, such as a bouquet of flowers, boosted the recipient’s mood by around 60 percent. In comparison, the mood boost for those who received kind words was only 25 percent.

Participants in the study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, were asked to recall situations in which they needed support, such as losing a job, and to rate their mood after receiving a gift or having a conversation.

According to the researchers, gifts are more effective because the giver is seen as having made a sacrifice for the recipient. They are also both a surprise and a sign of care, according to the study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Researchers say: “We show that gifts are a more effective form of acute emotional support than conversations. Gifts are a more surprising form of emotional support, and the surprise of a gift distracts support recipients from their problems.”

Giving a gift to a partner or friend when they are feeling down is much more effective than just saying nice things, according to a new study

“If you want to do something nice for your loved ones, sometimes it’s better to send a small gift than to text or call. Something that makes the recipient smile for a moment can be the right gift at the moment.”

To find out which type of emotional support is best, the researchers conducted seven experiments with a total of around 4,000 people to compare words with gifts and find out the mechanisms involved.

In the studies, men and women recalled times when they needed support or described their reactions to the type of support they received during hypothetical events, including job loss, not getting a promotion, relationship problems and minor car accidents.

Gifts included flowers, chocolates, sweets, cakes and scented candles, and conversations included comments like, “We’ll get through this.”

The results show that in all cases, gifts had a stronger mood-enhancing effect than words alone. The advantage of gifts over words was the same in romantic relationships and friendships.

Gifts are better because they require a sacrifice of time and money from the giver and they are both a surprise and a sign of caring, according to research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

In one experiment, participants were asked to rate a gift of flowers or words given to someone who had not received a promotion. The results show that flowers improved the recipient’s mood by about 60 percent, but compassionate words improved it by only about 25 percent.

The researchers from Duke University and other centers in the United States and Canada said: “We show that gifts are a more effective form of emotional support than conversations and that this effect is caused by recipients’ perceptions that gifts represent a greater sacrifice than conversations.”

“Sacrifices benefit the receiver by signaling that the giver cares about the receiver enough to make the sacrifice.”