Why do we love the wonky shelf we built ourselves?
The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love
People valued wonky storage boxes and origami they built themselves almost as highly as things made by experts.
Volunteers assembled IKEA storage boxes, folded origami frogs and cranes, and built Lego sets. Then they were asked how much they’d pay for their own creations versus identical ones made by someone else.
People were willing to pay noticeably more for things they had built themselves, even rather lumpy origami. The effect vanished if they gave up halfway. Love, it seems, comes with an Allen key.
You made it, so it’s perfect.