Mind & behavior · 2007
Does having an object with you make you value it more, even without being told it is yours?
In two experiments, physically possessing an object increased participants’ monetary valuation of it, while being told they owned it had no statistically significant effect. The possession effect was linked to a stronger feeling that the object was theirs. The abstract does not report the size of the effect or who participated.
Details
The researchers separated two things that often go together: what participants were told about who owned an object, and whether they physically possessed it. By varying these independently, they could examine which mattered for the monetary value participants placed on the object.
Physical possession strengthened feelings of ownership, and the analysis indicated that these feelings helped explain the effect of possession on valuation. The researchers interpreted this as evidence that feeling an object is yours, rather than stated ownership alone, can drive the tendency to value it more.
The lack of a statistically significant effect of stated ownership does not establish that ownership never matters. The abstract provides no effect sizes, participant characteristics or details about the object, so it does not show how large or broadly applicable the finding is.
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