The Endowment Effect
Chapter summary from Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
Ownership changes value. Once something is “yours,” giving it up feels like a loss, and losses are weighted heavily.
This creates the endowment effect: sellers demand more than buyers are willing to pay, even when nothing material changes except who holds the object.
The same force supports the status quo. Keeping what you have avoids the pain of possible loss, so default options become sticky and change feels costly.
The fast system treats relinquishing as harm. The slow system can argue that trade should be easy when values overlap, but emotion sets the price.
If you want cleaner choices, treat the default as a proposal, not as destiny. Ask what you would choose if you did not already own it, and notice how different the answer can be.
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