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behavioral economics
You value your own possessions more than others do.
People consistently assign a higher monetary value to an object simply because they own it.
In one experiment, participants given a coffee mug demanded a significantly higher price to sell it than buyers were willing to pay. This discrepancy exists because the loss of an item feels more painful than the potential gain of an equivalent one. Ownership immediately alters your subjective perception of worth.
You are biased toward everything you already have.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler (1990)
- What the check found
- While the reference material does not contain the specific study, the endowment effect is a well-established phenomenon in behavioral economics documented by the cited authors.
- 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.