Possession enhancement in an interpersonal context: An extension of the mere ownership effect

A Study of the Antecedents and Consequences of Psychological Ownership in Organizational Settings

“…Heider (1958) cites the conclusions drawn from studies conducted by Irwin and Gerbhard (1946: 651), whereby children consistently preferred objects given to them against objects given to others, to the extent that "ownership enhances the value of an object to the owner". That people evaluate a target more favorably when they own it, termed the 'mere ownership effect', has been consistently demonstrated and supported (Beggan, 1992;Nesselroade, Beggan, & Allison, 1999). Similarly, those possessions closely integrated with the self tend to be more positively valenced (Schultz, Klein, & Kernan, 1989).…”

Explanations of the endowment effect: an integrative review

“…Because most goods have more positive than negative features, this accessibility bias should result in owners more positively evaluating their goods than do non-owners [55]. Indeed, people spontaneously recall more positive features of goods that they own relative to those they do not [89]. Suggesting that ownership may increase the accessibility of all attributes of a good, people exhibit a reversal of the endowment effect for bads -entitlements with predominantly negative attributes (e.g., parking tickets).…”

“…Owners of a good evaluate it more positively than do non-owners [65,89]. Even virtually touching or imagining one owns a good is sufficient to create this mere ownership effect [68,72].…”

Why employees stay: the roles of psychological ownership, territoriality and work relationship closeness in affecting employee turnover intention

“…Employees' beliefs of being organizational owners may affect their turnover intention in two ways. First, individuals tend to consider that they have to be more valuable (Beggan, 1992;Nesselroade et al, 1999), thus employees who experience psychological ownership may think more highly of their organization when comparing it with other organizations. Second, some researchers (Pierce et al, 1991;Wagner et al, 2003;Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004) have suggested that psychological ownership can inspire positive attitudes toward the job and the organization, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational identification, which in turn reduce intentions to leave (Avey et al, 2009;Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004;Vandewalle et al, 1995).…”

“…This motivation may come mainly from the fear of losing one's precious property. Researchers have demonstrated that people evaluate an object as more valuable when they own it (Beggan, 1992;Nesselroade et al, 1999). Territorial behavior, including marking and defending behavior, helps to reduce the potential infringement from other organizational members and to make sure it will not be taken away by others (Brown, 2009).…”