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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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I think there's more to it than the IKEA effect. But, the IKEA effect is a cognitive bias or quirk where people value things they assembled themselves more than things built by someone else. It is named after the store IKEA which sells furniture that you must self-assemble.

From wikipedia

A 2011 study found that subjects were willing to pay 63% more for furniture they had assembled themselves than for equivalent pre-assembled items.

I'm not sure this is really a bias in all cases. Having built something develops virtue and having that memory triggered when you see the object cements that virtue. But when the IKEA effect shows up in the context of assessing whether something is a good deal based on its actual cost of production- or estimating something's value to others- it can definitely be a bias in that context and lead to overestimating things you made.