Testing “the Ikea effect” – why do we value things we assemble more highly than premades?

"When labor leads to love," a paper in the Journal of Consumer Psychology experimentally tests "the Ikea effect" that leads to people valuing things that they assemble, customize or build themselves more highly than premade, finished goods. We've all heard the story of how cake-mixes didn't sell until they were reformulated to require the "cook" to stir in a fresh egg, but most of what we know about this effect is marketing lore, not research. It's fascinating stuff.

Experiment 1A: Participants either inspected an IKEA pre-built box or assembled it themselves. Afterward, they were asked to bid on the box they had either seen or built. If their bid was above a random number, they would pay that amount to keep the box; if it was lower, they couldn’t keep it. Participants were also asked to self-report on the value of the box. An effect was found in both cases; on average, participants bid 62% more when they built the box versus when they simply inspected it. On average, participants also self-reported liking the self-built box more than the inspected boxes.

Experiment 1B: A similar design as Experiment 1A was used, except replacing IKEA boxes with origami cranes and frogs. There were no differences in value between the types of origami (cranes vs frogs), although participants bid 460% more for their own origami creations versus ones created by others, almost the market-driven value of cranes and frogs created by origami experts. The authors also discovered that participants thought others would value their origami creations highly, despite assigning little value to the amateur creations of others.

Experiment 2: Participants built small Lego sets (10 to 12 pieces) in pairs and were asked to bid on their own and their partners’ sets. Participants were either given a built Lego set (prebuilt condition), asked to build a Lego set (build condition), or asked to build a Lego set and then take it apart (unbuild condition). Participants universally applied more value to their own sets versus those of their partners. Most interestingly, the unbuild condition only produced slightly higher values than the prebuilt condition, while the build condition produced much larger values. Apparently, we placed increased value on assembled objects only if they are completed. Sounds pretty Gestalt to me.

Experiment 3: Participants were asked to built an IKEA box once again, but this time, a random half of participants were stopped halfway through construction. As expected, incomplete items were not valued as highly as completed items – especially interesting since a successful bid would mean that the participant could finish building the item later.

Unfolding the IKEA Effect: Why We Love the Things We Build (via /.)

(Image: What's Next?, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from seanhobson's photostream)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

People pointing at things

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

A list of disgusting non-food things found in hot dogs

Happy Labor Day cookout, everyone! Maggots, worms, metal, plastic, a razor, and semen are but some of the many non-food substances callers claimed were in their hot dogs, in complaints lodged with the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 2007 and 2009.

More from Stephen Rex Brown, writing for The Local East Village, a NYT blog:

Back in 2009, this reporter filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the U.S.D.A. to give up its dirty-dog logs. The 64 case files finally came in this week, just in time for the holiday! Consider them food for thought if you’re planning to grill during these last dog days of summer.

(...) One report told of a “winged insect that resembled a dragonfly inside the package of hot dogs,” and noted that the insect’s “head, eyes, and wings are visible. Insect is black in color, over 1-inch long.”

Of course, some of us are grossed out by the actual stuff that goes into hot dogs on purpose—random flesh and leftover critter parts. Veggie dogs for me, please.

More hot dog horror stories here, and view the actual documents here. If. You. Dare.

Image above: shards of glass were found in this package of hot dogs, according to a USDA complaint.

(thanks, Daniel Maurer and Jason Wishnow!)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.