Real, Digital? Product Type on Joy, Psychological Ownership, and Worth.
Level of Education of Students Involved
Undergraduate
Faculty Sponsor
Abbie Thompson
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
Psychology
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-15-2024
Abstract
The prevalence of digital goods have increased as technological advances continue to interact with consumerism. Despite this, physical goods are still preferred, as demonstrated by the preference for physical books over e-books (Pew Research Center, 2016). Factors concerning identity and legacy often make physical objects more desirable and valuable than digital ones (Giles et al., 2007). Individuals tend to have higher levels of psychological ownership of physical goods than digital (Atasoy et al., 2018). Thus, this study investigates the levels of psychological ownership and joy individuals experience with digital and physical goods.
Participants were asked on a survey how much they would pay for these goods, how much psychological ownership they would feel towards each item, and how much joy each object brings. We expect participants to have greater psychological ownership ratings, joy ratings, and be willing to pay more for physical rather than digital goods. The data will be analyzed by running paired samples t-tests with the product type (digital or physical) as the grouping variable and the amount of money participants are willing to pay, their perceived levels of ownership, and joy as our dependent variables. This project allows us to gain insight into how people feel about objects that come in the form of physical and digital goods. As digital goods become more plentiful, how we view and value our goods is bound to change and this sets a foundation on which to build an understanding.
Recommended Citation
Brainerd, Rachael; Pagan, Cristian; and Wlodarczyk, Ethan, "Real, Digital? Product Type on Joy, Psychological Ownership, and Worth." (2024). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 1314.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/1314
Biographical Information about Author(s)
The three of us are senior psychology majors who have been working on this project for two years. We began by running a study during our research methods class and then continued to expand our research with the guidance of Dr. Thompson in her Lab.