Possession Is Nine-Tenths the Perceived Value - washingtonpost.com

Why does it always seem so hard to part with something that you own and do your possessions seem so priceless to you but not to everyone else? A new study has found that "people tend to overvalue the things they own and prefer what they own rather than comparable things they don't own -- a phenomenon known as the 'endowment effect.'... brain research shows that this effect often seems to exist not because people are more driven to appreciate the things they own and find them more attractive, but because they simply can't stand the thought of losing a possession." Simply put, our brains may be hard-wired to be irrational when it comes to our possessions.