When instant cake mixes first appeared in the 1950s, American housewives were doubtful. These mixes, promising easy cake-baking, felt too easy. The manufacturers discovered that requiring the addition of an egg in the baking process was just enough to make the housewives happy with their work. The greater sense of effort gained from a little extra labor is believed to have been essential to the later success of the cake mix.
This reflects the IKEA effect (宜家效应), which is identified by psychologist Michael I. Norton and his colleagues, suggesting we place greater value on things we have worked to create. They conducted four studies in which they asked participants to fold paper cranes and frogs, assemble IKEA boxes, and build sets of Legos. They then asked the builders to bid (出价) for their creations, and compared the prices with bids from people who hadn't built them. The builders consistently outbid the non-builders.
Interestingly, the IKEA effect works even when people have no opportunity to fully personalize their creations. While most participants' folding skills left much to be desired, they loved their imperfectly personalized products all the more. Builders valued their wrinkled crane-like creations nearly five times as much as non-builders. Beauty, it seems, is in the eye of the builder.
Today, as cities are suffering from severe housing crises, the IKEA effect can give us insight into the well-being benefits of a self-building approach to housing development. Projects like WikiHouse and the "half-a-house" approach pioneered by Alejandro Aravena's architecture company Elemental are working to make housing more affordable and sustainable by making it easier for people to build and personalize their own homes.
"The moment people are involved with their built environment, they have a totally different relationship to it," WikiHouse co-founder Alastair Parvin explained. "When the roof starts leaking or a door starts creaking, they have the power to fix it themselves."