← all facts
behavior
You value your possessions simply because you own them.
People demand more money to give up an item than they would have paid to acquire it.
In a 1990 study, students were given a mug and then asked the price at which they would sell it. Sellers set prices significantly higher than the buyers, who were only willing to pay a fraction of that amount. Ownership changes the way you perceive the value of the object.
You are biased toward keeping what you already hold.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Kahneman, Knetsch, & Thaler, 1990
- What the check found
- The claim accurately describes the endowment effect demonstrated in the 1990 Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler study. The experimental result is well-established, even if the underlying behavioral mechanism remains debated.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.