The Ikea Effect

Are you familiar with the Ikea Effect? I found an article by Shankar Vedantam to be interesting reading. Studies by Daniel Mochon of Tulane University have shown that “The name for this psychological phenomenon derives from the love millions of Americans display toward their self-assembled furniture (or, dare we say it, their badly self-assembled furniture) from the do-it-yourself store with the Scandinavian name.” The bottom line? People tend to attach greater value to things they build themselves (compared to the same product that was built by someone else). Apparently, building your own stuff boosts your feelings of pride and signals "competence" to others. Hmmm. You might enjoy checking out the article.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171177695/why-you-love-that-ikea-table-even-if-its-crooked