From: NPR
Why You Love That Ikea Table, Even If It’s Crooked
NPR:
Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with what you’ve accomplished? Do the colors you’ve picked for your PowerPoint background pop so beautifully that you just have to sit back and admire your own genius?
If so, get in line: You’re the latest person to fall victim to the Ikea Effect.
The name for this psychological phenomenon derives from the love millions of Americans display toward their self-assembled furniture (or, dare we say it, their badly self-assembled furniture) from the do-it-yourself store with the Scandinavian name.
“Imagine that, you know, you built a table,” said Daniel Mochon, a Tulane University marketing professor, who has studied the phenomenon. “Maybe it came out a little bit crooked. Probably your wife or your neighbor would see it for what it is, you know? A shoddy piece of workmanship. But to you that table might seem really great, because you’re the one who created it. It’s the fruit of your labor. And that is really the idea behind the Ikea Effect.”
Read the whole story: NPR
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