MotivationM1

Endowment Effect

When we have ownership over something, we place a higher value on it.

Strategy card · Convince24 Pathways

The research

In the famous 'mug experiment', participants were given coffee mugs and offered the chance to sell them to participants that did not receive one. Participants that were given a mug valued it at more than double the amount of the other participants who were not given a mug. Simply being 'endowed' with the mug raised how much participants valued it.

Kahneman (1990). Experimental tests of the endowment effect and the Coase theorem.

Once we take ownership of an idea — We love it perhaps more than we should.

Thought starters

Enable people to feel ownership over the benefits that come with the behaviour

Remind people what they will lose out on if they give it up

Explain why the offering is exclusive or make it personal

Try combining with (M7) Loss aversion.