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effort
You value things more just because you made them.
People rate items they partially assembled as equal in value to items built by professionals.
Labor creates a sense of personal investment that overrides objective quality. When you put effort into something, your brain equates that time and energy with quality. You aren't valuing the product; you are valuing the piece of yourself you put into it.
Your pride in your work makes you a poor judge of its market worth.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Norton et al., 2011, Journal of Consumer Psychology
- What the check found
- The study (Norton, Mochon, & Ariely) was published online in 2011 and in print in 2012. It confirms that people equate the value of their self-assembled goods to those built by others.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.