Posted on 06/11/2008 5:41:52 PM PDT by blam
What's mine is mine: Brain scans reveal what's behind the aversion to loss of possessions
Did you ever wonder why it is so difficult to part with your stuff? A new study reveals fascinating insights into the specific neuropsychological mechanisms that are linked with the potential loss of possessions. The research, published by Cell Press in the June 12 issue of the journal Neuron, has important implications for both neuroscience and economics and may even explain why you are reluctant to sell your iPod.
People tend to prefer the items they own when compared to similar items that they do not own. This phenomenon, known as the "endowment effect," violates rational choice theory which states that ownership should not influence preferences. "While the endowment effect occurs regularly and robustly in both laboratory and natural settings, the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear," says study author Dr. Brian Knutson from Stanford University.
Dr. Knutson and colleagues used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan subjects' brains while they engaged in tasks designed to elicit the endowment effect. Subjects were asked to buy certain products, sell other products given to them before the experiment, and choose between yet other products and cash.
The researchers focused on three relevant brain regions, the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which is associated with the prediction of monetary gain and product preference, the insula, which is associated with the prediction of monetary loss, and the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), which is implicated in updating initial predictions of monetary gain.
Subjects showed greater NAcc activation for preferred products across buying and selling conditions combined. In contrast, MPFC activation correlated negatively with price during buying, but positively with price during selling. Interestingly, right insular activation in response to preferred products predicted individual differences in susceptibility to the endowment effect.
Taken together, these results indicate that the endowment effect is not promoted by an enhanced attraction to possessions but that ownership increases value by enhancing the salience of the possible loss of preferred products.
"Our findings provide support for one mechanism involving increased aversion to loss of possessions during selling and illustrate that neuroscience methods can advance economic theory not only by breaking down apparently unitary phenomena, such as choice, into constituent components, like anticipation of gain or loss, but also by specifying when each of these components matters," concludes Dr. Knutson.
Source: Cell Press
My house was robbed and my jewelry stolen — about $30k worth. That was two years ago, and I still feel as though I’d been raped yesterday. Very shocking, very hurtful. As if part of me had been stolen.
I recently went through my socks and underwear drawer, throwing things away, worn, faded, dingy, I still felt uneasy doing it, even though I have plenty in good shape and can afford new stuff when I need it.
I have a couple of shirts that I have probably had for 20 years or more. Hey, they’re mine and I don’t want to part with them.
” It’s mine...I bought it, I paid for it, it’s mine and I want it!”
Eyes
And for those who can’t part with stuff by throwing it away, there is the Salvation Army. Give it to them then leave. You will feel good about giving it to a worthy cause. Let THEM make the decision to toss it in the dumpster.
Hey,it works!
...more crap than I'd like to admit.
Thanks for the ping...it lets me know that I am not alone.
How did you get into my home office to take that picture?
Not my problem. I can get rid of things. My problem is not being able to make up my mind what I want. It could be two identical things and then I can't make up my mind on which color. Or it could be do I want a chair or sofa. I just can't make up my mind so I usually walk away without the item.
I also have the entire Partridge Family catalog. One of my favorite Partridge Family songs is "Point Me (In The Direction Of Albuquerque)" and Susan Dey is still 20 years old in my brain.
when i moved some years back i sold or gave away 60% of my stuff and quite a few things, it was an extremely freeing experience / feeling. i wondered if that was what some people who are about to commit suicide feel like after giving their stuff away as a final gesture before the act
Who came up with "rational choice theory", Marx?
"While the endowment effect occurs regularly and robustly in both laboratory and natural settings, the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear," says study author Dr. Brian Knutson from Stanford University.
Call it what you want, but it's why collectivism fails. Miserably.
for later reading
Exactly! It's a natural instinct for me to protect me and mine. Not "yours mine and ours".
What you said.
Well, I’m glad to know that there might be a logical explanation for why my mother-in-law has always been such an Indian giver (with apologies to Indians) where my husband and I are concerned. I’ve started to suspect it’s a brain thing that goes way back. Her usual thing has been to “give” us some piece of family junk that is a “priceless family heirloom” - you know, the old corncob that Granpaw used before toilet paper was invented, little old wobbly scratched up tables, Granmaw’s chipped “china” sugar bowl, a rickety “antique” rocker that belonged to Aunt Ardavella - you get the drift. Then three, four, five years down the road, she calls and “asks” for the items back. Years ago, she came to “help” me unpack from moving, and proceeded to claim every other item as “hers” and remarking that she just wished my husband would quit “taking things” without asking. (I finally got so upset I called him home from work, but wasn’t able to fully explain what she was doing. When I told him about the items she was claiming were hers, he said he had bought most of the stuff at garage sales. She “gave” me a tea table, then took it away a few years later and gave it to someone else.
Finally, after years of her using us as a storage facility for her junk, we loaded what little of her stuff we had left and carried it all to her. Now we refuse to take anything else that she announces that “she wants us to have and doesn’t want to bother with it any more”. It has just become startling to have her stand in front of some object or the other on my shelves and “ask” for it back. I know it is something that she can’t help for some reason or the other, but after forty plus years, I am tapped out with it especially as generous as my husband has been with her in every way over the years.
That’s quite a story Twinkie.
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