title: Psychological ownership: The implicit association between self and already-owned versus newly-owned objects.
abstract: Evidence from explicit measures (e.g. favourability ratings, valuations) has led to the prevalent hypothesis that owned objects become cognitively associated with self-concept. Using a novel version of the Implicit Association Test (self-object IAT), wherein participants categorized objects by colour, we evaluated implicit cognitive associations involving self with already-owned and newly-owned objects. We observed faster responses when self-related words required the same response key as the colour that incidentally corresponded to self-owned objects, irrespective of length of ownership. These findings suggest that participants efficiently form cognitive associations between self and self-owned objects within mere minutes of ownership induction and inspire questions about the extent to which length of ownership drives the strength of this association.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S4K1, Canada. Electronic address: lebarran@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: A Nicole
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: LeBarr
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S4K1, Canada. Electronic address: shedden@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Judith M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Shedden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010067:Ownership; D012649:Self Concept; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive association; Explicit; Implicit; Implicit Association Test; Mere ownership effect; Ownership; Self