Gifts are a better way of lifting someone’s mood than kind words, research suggests.

A present, such as a bunch of flowers, was found to boost the mood of a recipient by around 60 per cent, compared to a lift of just 25 per cent for those who were given kind words.

Participants in the study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, were asked to recall times when they needed support such as a job loss and rated their mood after receiving a gift or a talk.

The researchers said gifts were more effective as the giver is seen to have made a sacrifice for the recipient, and they are both a surprise and signal of caring, according to the research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

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

`If people want to support their loved ones, they should consider sometimes sending a small gift rather than texting or calling. Something that makes receivers smile briefly may be the right gift for the moment.’

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

In the studies, men and women recalled times when they needed support, or had their reactions to the type of support given to hyopthetical events, including job loss, failure to be promoted, relationship problems, and minor car crashes.

Gifts included flowers, chocolates, sweets, cakes, and scented candles, while conversation included comments like: `We’ll work it out’.

Results show that in all cases, gifts had a greater mood-improving effect than words alone. The advantage of gifts over word was the same in romantic partnerships and in friendships.

In one experiment, people were asked to rate a gift of flowers or words given to someone who had lost out on promotion. Results show that the mood of the receiver improved by around 60 per cent with the flowers, but only around 25 per cent with sympathetic words.

The researchers from Duke University and other centres in the US and Canada said: ‘We demonstrate that gifts are a more effective form of emotional support than is conversational support and that this effect is caused by receivers’ perceptions that gifts are more of a sacrifice than are conversations.

‘Sacrifices benefit the receiver by signalling that the giver cares about the receiver enough to make the sacrifice.’