Wolf, J. R., Arkes, H. R., &Muhanna, W. A. (2008). The power of touch: An examination of the effect of duration of physical contact on the valuation of objects

The duration of ownership has been shown to increase the valuation of items that people currently own as well as items they have owned in the past, a phenomenon termed the “length-of-ownership effect.” We hypothesize that the duration of exposure to an item will foster increased pre-ownership attachment to an item and increased valuations in a manner similar to duration of actual ownership. We examine this effect in two experiments, both variations of the classicmugexperiment. Toinducedifferentlevelsofexposure,wevariedtheamountoftimethatparticipantsexamined the auctioned item (i.e., coffee mugs) prior to participating in real dollar auctions. In the first study, participants bid in onlineEnglishopenbidauctions. Inthesecondstudy,participantsbidinfirst-pricesealedbidauctions. Inbothcasesof duration of physical contact positively influenced valuations (i.e., bid levels).

 

 

Wolf, J. R., Arkes, H. R., &Muhanna, W. A. (2008). The power of touch: An examination of the effect of duration of physical contact on the valuation of objects. Judgment and Decision Making, 3(6), 476.