Leiden University Student Repository

Tosellini, Riccardo (2023)

How the feeling of psychological ownership influences willingness-to-accept (WTA) in anticommons dilemmas.

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

The anticommons dilemma is not a well known dilemma, but wellworth studying as it has a practical impact on individuals and society when it occurs. It occurs when multiple people co-own a resource or property who have to grant each other permission in order to use or sell the resource. This study explores whether in an anticommons dilemma a participant’s feeling of ownership over a resource increases when he or she has to put effort into obtaining it. Half of the participants (Ntotal = 208) had to exert effort by doing an effort task in order to influence their Willingness To Accept (WTA) value, i.e. the amount of points they are willing to accept as payment in order to let the other co-owner use the resource. The participants also filled in a Psychological Ownership scale. Effort did not significantly influence psychological ownership, but psychological ownership did significantly influence WTA. There was no significant WTA difference between the (un)equal effort treatment...Show moreThe anticommons dilemma is not a well known dilemma, but wellworth studying as it has a practical impact on individuals and society when it occurs. It occurs when multiple people co-own a resource or property who have to grant each other permission in order to use or sell the resource. This study explores whether in an anticommons dilemma a participant’s feeling of ownership over a resource increases when he or she has to put effort into obtaining it. Half of the participants (Ntotal = 208) had to exert effort by doing an effort task in order to influence their Willingness To Accept (WTA) value, i.e. the amount of points they are willing to accept as payment in order to let the other co-owner use the resource. The participants also filled in a Psychological Ownership scale. Effort did not significantly influence psychological ownership, but psychological ownership did significantly influence WTA. There was no significant WTA difference between the (un)equal effort treatment conditions. The effects of effort are further analysed and discussed.Show less

anticommons dilemma

willingness-to-accept

effort

social dilemmas

psychological ownership

decision making

uncertainty

game theory

Author

Tosellini, Riccardo

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Social and Organisational Psychology

Supervisors

Kwaadsteniet, E.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en