The Gimme Experimental Experiment

Gimme Experimental is a short experiment but tests a very interesting psychology concept: the endowment effect. The endowment effect simply is the expectation that if a person owns something they place a higher value to it. Conversely, there is another psychology term called the reverse endowment effect. This is the complete opposite of the endowment effect, which means a person would place a higher value for someone else’s possession. Interestingly, this experiment does not take long at all. Kids take a short “tour” of the lab. The most important part is letting the kids play with their assigned toy and letting them know it is now theirs (ownership) and that they will be able to take it home after the experiment. Then, also as important
This throws off the experiment entirely because now the kid has a bias, positive or negative to that particular toy. Thus, a way to fix this problem is picking 4 toys that are unusual. They should not be popular toys advertised in mainstream media and popular culture (Example: fidget spinners) because then the potential for participants owning the particular toy will increase. Picking toys is extremely difficult because there needs to be two stimuli that are different yet equally rewarding and then two other stimuli that are not as enticing, which brings up another problem. Hairy smiley guy. Hairy smiley guy is a very distracting stimuli. To some people, hairy smile guy is a lot cooler than the assigned toy and the different toy. This also throws off the study because Hairy smiley guy is a control. He does not necessarily play a role in testing the endowment effect and the reverse endowment effect; he just detracts attention away from the participants who should be trying to choose between the 2 stimuli (assigned and different). Therefore, when coming up with four new toys, hairy smiley guy should not make the list