Effects of Ownership. It refers to valuing what one owns from one’s own perspective. The competition to buy tickets for the Duke University basketball game was very fierce, so the university decided to distribute tickets through a lottery. Some students applied for the same ticket, and among them, the winning students and dropout students were asked about their valuations: the winners were asked how much they would sell the ticket for, while the dropout students were asked how much they would buy it for. The lowest selling price from the winners was $2,410, whereas the highest buying price from the dropout students was $170. The difference was substantial. When asked why they thought so, ticket holders considered the value of giving up the ticket, while ticket buyers considered the value of exchanging cash for it. In other words, possession represented the benefit of sacrificing something else. Value judgments depend on what we own. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Doing nothing is also media content. The media showed others something with the obsession that something had to be done. The Norwegian national broadcasting company, NRK, showcased only the scenery of the railroad between Bergen and Oslo for 7 hours and 20 minutes in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the railway’s opening. In 2011, they aired 134 hours of ferry service along the fjord coast. Railroad broadcast ratings were 15% (four times the usual), and ferry broadcasts were watched by 64% of all Norwegians. If you know that humans are not the main characters in our lives, you are guaranteed more fun. Proof of existence and achievement is not everything in our lives. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”