The mere ownership effect is a cognitive bias in which people assign greater value to an item simply because they own it, compared with the value assigned to an identical item by someone who does not own it. The effect can be triggered even without genuine ownership, since simply touching an object or imagining owning it is enough to produce it. Researchers attribute the effect either to emotional attachment toward possessed items or to enhanced memory encoding of goods associated with the self.
Facts
Core ClaimIn the mere ownership effect, people who are randomly assigned to receive a good evaluate it more positively than people not assigned to receive that same good, simply because they now own it. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Wikipedia: Endowment effect
Wikimedia FoundationMere ownership paradigm section
In this paradigm, people who are randomly assigned to receive a good ('owners') evaluate it more positively than people who are not randomly assigned to receive the good ('controls').
References section, Beggan citation
Beggan, J. (1992). "On the social nature of nonsocial perception: The mere ownership effect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 62 (2): 229-237.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
The mere ownership effect is a cognitive bias in which people assign greater value to an item simply because they own it, compared with the value assigned to an identical item by someone who does not own it.
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