After witnessing the violent rage shown by babies whenever deprived of an item they considered their own, Jean Piaget, a founding father of child psychology, observed something profound about human nature. Our sense of ownership emerges incredibly early. Why are we so clingy? There's a well-established phenomenon in psychology known as the endowment effect where we value items much more highly just as soon as we own them. In one famous demonstration, students were given a choice between a coffee mug or a Swiss chocolate bar as a reward for helping out with research. Half chose the mug, and half chose the chocolate. That is, they seemed to value the two rewards similarly. Other students were given a mug first and then a surprise chance to swap it for a chocolate bar, but only 11% wanted to. Yet another group started out with chocolate, and most preferred to keep it rather than swap. In other words, the students nearly always put greater value on whichever reward they started out with. Part of this has to do with how quickly we form connections between our sense of self and the things we consider ours. That can even be seen at the neural level. In one experiment, neuroscientists scanned participants' brains while they allocated various objects either to a basket labeled "mine," or another labeled, "Alex's." When participants subsequently looked at their new things, their brains showed more activity in a region that usually flickers into life whenever we think about ourselves. Another reason we're so fond of our possessions is that from a young age we believe they have a unique essence. Psychologists showed us this by using an illusion to convince three to six-year-olds they built a copying machine, a device that could create perfect replicas of any item. When offered a choice between their favorite toy or an apparently exact copy, the majority of the children favored the original. In fact, they were often horrified at the prospect of taking home a copy. This magical thinking about objects isn't something we grow out of. Rather it persists into adulthood while becoming ever more elaborate. For example, consider the huge value placed on items that have been owned by celebrities. It's as if the buyers believed the objects they'd purchased were somehow imbued with the essence of their former celebrity owners. For similar reasons, many of us are reluctant to part with family heirlooms which help us feel connected to lost loved ones. These beliefs can even alter our perception of the physical world and change our athletic abilities. Participants in a recent study were told they were using a golf putter once owned by the champion Ben Curtis. During the experiment, they perceived the hole as being about a centimeter larger than controlled participants using a standard putter and they sank slightly more putts. Although feelings of ownership emerge early in life, culture also plays a part. For example, it was recently discovered that Hadza people of northern Tanzania who are isolated from modern culture don't exhibit the endowment effect. That's possibly because they live in an egalitarian society where almost everything is shared. At the other extreme, sometimes our attachment to our things can go too far. Part of the cause of hoarding disorder is an exaggerated sense of responsibility and protectiveness toward one's belongings. That's why people with this condition find it so difficult to throw anything away. What remains to be seen today is how the nature of our relationship with our possessions will change with the rise of digital technologies. Many have forecast the demise of physical books and music, but for now, at least, this seems premature. Perhaps there will always be something uniquely satisfying about holding an object in our hands and calling it our own.
Potem ko je bil priča srditi jezi dojenčkov, kadar so jim odvzeli predmet, ki so ga imeli za svojega, je Jean Piaget, utemeljitelj otroške psihologije, dognal nekaj globokega o človeški naravi. Občutek za lastništvo se pojavi neverjetno zgodaj. Zakaj se tako oklepamo stvari? V psihologiji obstaja znan pojav, ki se imenuje učinek imetništva, po katerem dajemo večjo vrednost stvarem, ko si jih enkrat lastimo. V enem od znamenitih poskusov so študentje imeli izbiro med skodelico za kavo in švicarsko čokolado kot nagrado za pomoč pri raziskavi. Pol jih je izbralo skodelico, druga polovica pa čokolado. Obe nagradi so torej ocenjevali podobno. Drugi študenti so najprej dobili skodelico, potem pa možnost, da jo zamenjajo za čokolado, a le 11 % je to želelo storiti. Tretja skupina je najprej dobila čokolado in večina je ni hotela zamenjati. Z drugimi besedami: skoraj vsi študenti so večjo vrednost dali nagradi, s katero so začeli. Deloma je to povezano s tem, kako hitro tvorimo povezave med zavedanjem sebe in stvarmi, ki jih imamo za svoje. To se vidi celo na ravni nevronov. V nekem poskusu so znanstveniki skenirali možgane udeležencev, medtem ko so različne predmete razporejali bodisi v košaro "moje" bodisi v košaro z oznako "Alexovo". Ko so udeleženci potem gledali "svoje" stvari, so možgani kazali večjo dejavnost v območju, ki se aktivira, ko mislimo nase. Drugi razlog, da imamo radi svoje stvari, je v tem, da od zgodnjih let verjamemo, da imajo posebne lastnosti. Psihologi so to dokazali z iluzijo, ko so tri- do šestletnike prepričali, da imajo kopirni stroj, ki lahko napravi popolne kopije česarkoli. V izbiri med najljubšo igračo ali njeno točno kopijo je večina otrok izbrala original. Pravzaprav so se zgrozili nad možnostjo, da bi domov odnesli kopijo. Tega magičnega odnosa do stvari se ne odvadimo. Vztraja v odraslosti in postaja vse bolj dodelan. Pomislite na vrednost, ki jo pripisujemo stvarem, ki so bile last zvezdnikov. Kot bi kupci verjeli, da bodo kupljeni kosi imeli esenco prejšnjih zvezdniških lastnikov. Iz podobnih razlogov se mnogi neradi ločimo od družinske dediščine, saj ohranja povezanost z ljubljenimi, ki jih ni več. Ta prepričanja lahko celo spremenijo naše dojemanje fizičnega sveta ter spremenijo naše športne sposobnosti. Udeležencem nedavne študije so povedali, da uporabljajo palico za golf, ki je nekoč pripadala prvaku Benu Curtisu. Med poskusom so menili, da je luknja kak centimeter večja, kot so to menili udeleženci kontrolne skupine s standardno palico, in prva skupina je ciljala nekoliko bolje. Čeprav se občutek za imetje pojavi zgodaj, tudi kultura igra določeno vlogo. Nedavno so odkrili, da ljudstvo Hadza iz severne Tanzanije, ki je izolirano od moderne kulture, ne kaže občutka imetništva. Morda zato, ker živijo v enakopravni družbi, kjer se skoraj vse deli. Po drugi strani naša navezanost na stvari včasih gre predaleč. Del razlogov za motnjo kopičenja stvari je pretiran občutek odgovornosti in zaščitniškega odnosa do lastnine. Zato ljudje s to motnjo težko kaj vržejo stran. Ugotoviti pa moramo še, kako se odnos do lastnine spreminja z vzponom digitalne tehnologije. Mnogi so napovedali zaton fizičnih knjig in glasbe, a to se za sedaj zdi preuranjeno. Morda bo vedno nekaj posebno zadovoljujočega v držanju stvari v rokah in védenju, da so naše.