Ownership Effect Can Be a Result of Other-Derogation: Evidence from Behavioral and Electrophysiological Studies.
Growing evidence suggests that people overvalue their own objects compared to those owned by others, even when the two objects are virtually identical (i.e., ownership effect). Most researchers seem to consider self-enhancement as the underlying mechanism while neglecting the possible process of other-derogation. Here, we attempted to compare these two perspectives, adopting both implicit and neurocognitive methodologies to overcome social desirability confounds. In Study 1, we found that the ownership effect (measured by Implicit Association Test), was correlated with other-derogation but not with self-enhancement (both measured by the Go/No-Go Association Task). In Study 2, by using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique, we showed that positive-framed other-owned objects elicited significant evaluative incongruity (i.e. indexed by late positive potentials) compared to negative-framed other-owned objects. In contrast, negative-framed self-owned objects did not evoke significant evaluative incongruity relative to positive-framed self-owned objects. Our research suggests that, in addition to the self-enhancement that has been widely demonstrated, it is also important to keep other-derogation in mind when examining the ownership effect.
Department of Marketing and Electronic Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Yunhui
Y
Huang
Research Center for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.|Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Yin
Y
Wu
D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010067:Ownership; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior