Merely possessing an object makes people value it far beyond its market worth.

Evidence

Even little things can take on sacred significance. In a compelling series of experiments, Kahneman and colleagues demonstrated that people demand more to give up an object, such as a mug or pen they have just been given, than they would be willing to spend to acquire the object. Kahneman and Tversky attributed this ‘endowment effect’ to a kink in the value function of prospect theory: the disutility of losing something is greater than the utility of gaining it. — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable, 29

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reluctance-to-correct-sacred-beliefs theme: loss aversion hardens commitments, including to identities and values, not just to mugs. — connects to: Personal property is constitutive of the self, so alienating it harms the person — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 307; Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 250; Value emerges from relational valuation practices, not from objects themselves. — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 23 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Personal property is constitutive of the self, so alienating it harms the person #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 307
• Self-alienation in property explains ownership’s intensity beyond mere utility. #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 146
• Value emerges from relational valuation practices, not from objects themselves. #complicates (0.80) — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 23
• Looking at an object constitutes labor that increases its value #corroborates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 145
• Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 250