Actually Holding an Item Makes People Likely to Buy It

A new, first-of-its-kind study shows that people are more likely to buy an object if they actually hold the item, and are also willing to outbid others in an auction for it. Because of the emotional attachment that forms within the first 30 seconds of touching it, they are also more likely to pay more than the retail price for that item. Researchers at the Ohio State University (OSU) and the Illinois State University (ISU) conducted an experiment to prove this, using an inexpensive coffee mug as a reference point. The results were published in the journal Judgment and Decision Making.

"The amazing part of this study is that people can become almost immediately attached to something as insignificant as a mug. By simply touching the mug and feeling it in their hands, many people begin to feel like the mug is, in fact, their mug. Once they begin to feel it is theirs, they are willing to go to greater lengths to keep it," shares James Wolf, the lead author of the study, who has been working on it since he was a doctoral student at OSU. The researcher is now an assistant professor of information system at ISU.

He explains that, generally, people start to feel ownership for an object long before they actually purchase it, and says that the new paper shows that emotional bounds can form within as little as 30 seconds. When people experience this, they are very likely to fight harder to keep the item than to simply give it back.

During the experiment, participants were told the base price of the coffee cup that was auctioned, and some were asked to hold it for various periods of time. Afterwards, test subjects were asked to bid online for it, and Wolf noted that those who held the cup were more likely to pay a higher price for it.

OSU professor emeritus of psychology Hal Arkes, the co-author of the paper, concludes that "We took the most minimal type of attachment; not a new car or a suit, but a mug. And we found significant differences in consumer valuations that begin in a matter of seconds."