There are a few psychological cues that explain why we’ve become so demanding, including one that shopping-psychology researchers call the “endowment effect.” Studies suggest that once we buy something, we start to feel a keen sense of ownership, and we find ourselves giving extra value to it and visualizing all the ways it will make our life easier and more enjoyable.
For brick-and-mortar buys, the time between purchase and use is exactly zilch. But for online purchases, we’re cast into a strange, gray length of doubt and desire, and that can lead us into behavior that doesn’t make a ton of sense.
“Even if you’ve waited six months to decide on a smartphone to buy, when you buy it, you still might want next-day shipping and pay $35 extra,” said Narayan Janakiraman, an assistant marketing professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. “Once you know you’ve made the decision, that changes the game. You start liking the product more, you start wanting the product more. … Not having it seems like a loss.”
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