People who assembled a plain IKEA box would pay 63 percent more for it than people handed the same box already built, an overvaluation of their own labor that researchers named the IKEA effect

People who assembled a plain IKEA box would pay 63 percent more for it than people handed the same box already built, an overvaluation of their own labor that researchers named the IKEA effect

In a 2012 study, researchers handed some people a plain black storage box still in its flat-pack and let others inspect the same box already assembled. Then they asked everyone to name a price they would actually pay to keep it. The people who had built the box themselves bid an average of 78 cents. The people handed the finished box bid 48 cents. Same box, same parts, but the builders wanted it 63 percent more. Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon and…