Mere ownership effect

The mere ownership effect is the observation that people who own a good tend to evaluate it more positively than people who do not.[1]

It is typically demonstrated in a paradigm in which some participants in an experiment are randomly assigned to own a good ("owners") by receiving it for free. Other participants are randomly assigned to simply evaluate the same good without receiving it. Participants who own the good typically rate it as more attractive or as liking it more than do participants who do not own it. It is not necessary to actually own a good to exhibit the mere ownership effect. Simply touching[2] or imagining that one owns a good[3] is enough to instantiate the mere ownership effect.

The mere ownership effect is often used as a case in which people show the endowment effect that cannot be parsimoniously explained by loss aversion.[4]

  1. ^ Beggan, James K. (1992). "On the social nature of nonsocial perception: The mere ownership effect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 62 (2): 229–237. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.586.2683. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.62.2.229.
  2. ^ Brasel, S. Adam; Gips, James (2014-04-01). "Tablets, touchscreens, and touchpads: How varying touch interfaces trigger psychological ownership and endowment". Journal of Consumer Psychology. Sensory perception, embodiment, and grounded cognition: Implications for consumer behavior. 24 (2): 226–233. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2013.10.003. S2CID 145501566.
  3. ^ Kim, Kyungmi; Johnson, Marcia K. (2014-07-01). "Extended self: spontaneous activation of medial prefrontal cortex by objects that are 'mine'". Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 9 (7): 1006–1012. doi:10.1093/scan/nst082. ISSN 1749-5016. PMC 4090970. PMID 23696692.
  4. ^ Morewedge, Carey K.; Giblin, Colleen E. (2015). "Explanations of the endowment effect: an integrative review". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 19 (6): 339–348. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.04.004. PMID 25939336. S2CID 4619648.