Scientific Definition
Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.
Plain-English Definition
Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.
Feynman Explanation
The mug in your hand is mysteriously worth more than the identical one on the shelf.
Core Principle
Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Free trials, default ownership, divestiture decisions.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The mug in your hand is mysteriously worth more than the identical one on the shelf.
Examples
- Knetsch's mug/pen experiments: random endowment shifts the WTA/WTP gap dramatically.
- Free trials, default ownership, divestiture decisions.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Force the question: 'If we didn't already own this, would we buy it today?' If no — sell.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Force the question: 'If we didn't already own this, would we buy it today?' If no — sell.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
The study of how real humans actually decide — bounded, social, emotional, and inconsistent.
Customers become trapped in a product due to switching costs or network effects.
Demand for a good drops as more people own it.
Demand rises with price because the price itself signals status.
Exploiting price differences between markets for risk-free profit.
With clear property rights and low transaction costs, parties negotiate to efficient outcomes.
Specialize in what you give up the least to do.
Complements raise each other's value; substitutes lower it.
Fixed costs don't scale with output; variable costs do.
Innovation destroys old industries and creates new ones.
Each additional unit produces less marginal benefit.
A long-run planner self in conflict with a short-run impulsive self.