3 ms·

There is an IKEA effect, but it describes something else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect : The IKEA e

by stereo 8y ago

There is an IKEA effect, but it describes something else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect : The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created.

jacquesm 8y ago
That's a good find. It goes a lot further than just furniture though, any kind of investment could be subject to that. Religion, team affiliation, political leanings, and brands selected for items purchased all suffer from a sunk cost identification issue that seems to be closely related to this. As soon as you put any effort into something you are more than likely to think it is good because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourself you made a mistake and your effort was wasted.
brudgers 8y ago
In the specific case of IKEA, I'm skeptical because an important feature of IKEA self assemble furniture is that it is easy to transport. Transporting a fully assembled Kallax 5x5 shelving unit from point of purchase to my upstairs would require solving a meaningful number of logistical challenges or paying for delivery. Even getting a Poang chair into my vehicle at the loading dock is an uncertain topological puzzle. The value proposition of Ikea furniture includes trading the uncertain labor of transporting bulky furniture for the certain labor of modular transport and simple assembly. Going further, the economics of end user assembled furniture tends to result in lower prices because the retailer has reduced bulk for stock on hand and reduced shipping costs (at scale, bulk has more impact on shipping cost than weight most of the time).
- osteele 8y ago
  “The moving sofa problem or sofa problem is a two-dimensional idealisation of real-life furniture-moving problems and asks for the rigid two-dimensional shape of largest area A that can be maneuvered through an L-shaped planar region with legs of unit width.[1] The area A thus obtained is referred to as the sofa constant. The exact value of the sofa constant is an open problem.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem Familiar to some of us from Douglas Adams' _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_.
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    Especially because that one involved some trapdoor math.

by stereo 8y ago

jacquesm 8y ago

That's a good find. It goes a lot further than just furniture though, any kind of investment could be subject to that. Religion, team affiliation, political leanings, and brands selected for items purchased all suffer from a sunk cost identification issue that seems to be closely related to this. As soon as you put any effort into something you are more than likely to think it is good because otherwise you'd have to admit to yourself you made a mistake and your effort was wasted.

brudgers 8y ago

In the specific case of IKEA, I'm skeptical because an important feature of IKEA self assemble furniture is that it is easy to transport. Transporting a fully assembled Kallax 5x5 shelving unit from point of purchase to my upstairs would require solving a meaningful number of logistical challenges or paying for delivery. Even getting a Poang chair into my vehicle at the loading dock is an uncertain topological puzzle. The value proposition of Ikea furniture includes trading the uncertain labor of transporting bulky furniture for the certain labor of modular transport and simple assembly. Going further, the economics of end user assembled furniture tends to result in lower prices because the retailer has reduced bulk for stock on hand and reduced shipping costs (at scale, bulk has more impact on shipping cost than weight most of the time).

osteele 8y ago
“The moving sofa problem or sofa problem is a two-dimensional idealisation of real-life furniture-moving problems and asks for the rigid two-dimensional shape of largest area A that can be maneuvered through an L-shaped planar region with legs of unit width.[1] The area A thus obtained is referred to as the sofa constant. The exact value of the sofa constant is an open problem.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem Familiar to some of us from Douglas Adams' _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Especially because that one involved some trapdoor math.