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Neuroscience of selling your stuff

Posted June 13, 2008 12:14 PM

From Boing Boing:

We sometimes say that it "hurts" to part with our stuff even if it's junk, and we know it's junk. Behavioral scientists call it the endowment effect, a theory that people put higher values on things once they own them. Turns out though that it actually does hurt to sell something you own, and it has nothing to do with overvaluing. Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania psychologists recreated the endowment effect in volunteers while scanning their brains with MRI.

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Power-User

Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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#1

Re: Neuroscience of selling your stuff

06/13/2008 1:27 PM

So that explains the garage full of stuff? My efforts are humble, I've neighbors that leave $40,000 + cars outside and all that crap inside?

My hotrod gets protection, and the recycler bin is quite full thank you.

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Commentator

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Neuroscience of selling your stuff

06/14/2008 11:15 PM

This explains why my husband is a rat pack ... now I believe him when he says that he cannot part with anything dear to his heart.

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Power-User

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: Neuroscience of selling your stuff

06/15/2008 12:18 AM

Actually I had that problem for many years, my wife helped me fix the problem. I have herd a song by that also explained the beauty of minimilist possessions.

It is not all like that, I've chests and storage containers of stuff only I in my family know the value of. I am still an engineer just not overwhelmed by my stuff any more.

S true that neatly organized junk and less of it place smaller pressures on our minds. : -- )

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#4

Re: Neuroscience of selling your stuff

06/15/2008 7:55 AM

Over many years we have had many house shifts.

My wife just loves to throw things out, or sell them, because they are not used.

I am like many practical men, who retain things because they might come in handy, some day.

many years of experience and careful observance have resulted in a common result.

I have called it "Sparky's Universal Unfortunate Disposal Law", which states: "The day after you throw out some "surplus or unwanted" article, is the very day you need it, or some part of it, to repair something else".

Kind Regards....

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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Neuroscience of selling your stuff

06/15/2008 8:22 AM

How true!!!!

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