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

Abstract

The mere ownership effect (Beggan, 1992) is defined as the tendency of an owner to evaluate an object more favorably than a nonowner. The present research extends this idea to how people evaluate their property in comparison to others' property. The general hypothesis was that people would display an interpersonally based mere ownership effect and evaluate their possessions more favorably than others' possessions. Study 1 provided an initial confirmation of this hypothesis by showing that people associated more good traits with their possessions than the possessions of others. Studies 2, 3, and 5 ruled out alternative explanations for the ownership effects. Study 4 found that the attributes owners used to describe a possession were more positive than the attributes used by nonowners. Implications of the results for marketing and marketing research are considered. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.