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<p><font color="#000000">FWIW, here's some AI slop for you.
>8^D</font></p>
</p>
<hr width="100%" size="2">
<p>
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence
across social psychology and adjacent behavioral research
shows a
reliable tendency to value </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>self-made
products, ideas, and performances</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000"> more
positively than equivalent others\u2019 outputs, though the effect
is
not universal and depends on context (Norton et al., 2012;
Pelled et
al., 2025; Zheng & Miller, 2019; John & Robins, 1994).
The
strongest direct evidence comes from the </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>IKEA
effect</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> literature,
while self-enhancement and ownership-bias studies show related
but
more qualified forms of the same pattern (Norton et al., 2012;
Pelled
et al., 2025; Krueger et al., 2017; Zheng & Miller, 2018).</font></p>
<h2 class="western" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.17in"><font
color="#000000">Preference
for One\u2019s Own Work</font></h2>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<thead> <tr>
<th style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence Strength</font></p>
</th>
<th style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Claim</font></p>
</th>
</tr>
</thead> <tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence strength: Strong (9/10)</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">People </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>pay more for self-made objects</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000"> than for identical objects made by
others, and a meta-analysis across 55 studies found a
</font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>moderate overall
effect</b></font></strong><font color="#000000">
of self-assembly on valuation, </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>d</i></font></em><font
color="#000000"> = 0.57 (Norton et al., 2012; Pelled
et al., 2025).</font></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence strength: Strong (8/10)</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">People often treat their </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>amateur creations</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000"> as comparable in value to experts\u2019
work and expect others to agree, showing overvaluation
rather than simple preference matching (Norton et al.,
2012; Norton et al., 2011).</font></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence strength: Moderate
(6/10)</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0in">
<p><font color="#000000">Similar self-favoring bias
appears in </font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>idea
selection and self-evaluation</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000">, but it is more conditional: design
professionals favored their own low-value ideas, and
people rate their own performance somewhat more
positively than peers or staff do (Zheng & Miller,
2019; Zheng & Miller, 2018; John & Robins,
1994).</font></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><font color="#000000"><b>Figure 1:</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000"> Strength
of evidence for preferring one\u2019s own work</font></p>
<h2 class="western" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.17in"><font
color="#000000">Experimental
Findings</font></h2>
<p><font color="#000000">The classic experiments show that labor
itself can raise valuation even when there is </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>no
customization</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> and
the
product is mundane and utilitarian, such as assembled storage
boxes
(Norton et al., 2012). The same pattern extends to hedonic
creations
like origami and Legos, and people can value their own poorly
made
outputs as highly as expert-made ones (Norton et al., 2012;
Marsh et
al., 2017).</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">This bias is not limited to adults or to
one
culture. It appears by about </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>age
5</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> (Marsh et al.,
2017), and British and Indian children both valued their own
created
toys over identical copies, whether they built alone or
collaboratively (Marsh et al., 2022).</font></p>
<h2 class="western" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.17in"><font
color="#000000">Mechanisms
and Limits</font></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><strong><font color="#000000"><b>Successful
completion matters</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000">; when people fail to finish or must
destroy what they built, the IKEA effect drops out (Norton
et al., 2012; Norton et al., 2011).</font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font color="#000000">Feelings
of </font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>competence and
pride</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> appear
to mediate higher valuation of self-made products (Mochon
et al., 2012).</font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><strong><font color="#000000"><b>Ownership
alone</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> can be
sufficient for some self-biases, as people prioritized a
newly owned voice even without producing it themselves
(Payne et al., 2024).</font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><font color="#000000">Evidence is </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>mixed on mechanisms</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000">; developmental work found ownership alone
did not explain children\u2019s valuation of their own
creations, and effort amount did not moderate the effect
in 5- to 6-year-olds (Marsh et al., 2017).</font></p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 class="western" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.17in"><font
color="#000000">Related
Self-Enhancement Evidence</font></h2>
<p><font color="#000000">In performance judgments, people are on
average </font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>slightly more
positive about themselves</b></font></strong><font
color="#000000"> than
peers or assessors are, and they are less accurate judging
themselves
than judging peers (John & Robins, 1994). People also show
self-enhancing attributions after success more reliably than
self-protective attributions after failure, so the broader
bias is
real but not as general or symmetrical as folk wisdom suggests
(Miller & Ross, 1975).</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">There is also evidence in creative
domains:
participants ranked </font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>self-made
artworks</b></font></strong><font color="#000000"> as more
self-relevant, more owned, and more liked than other-made
paintings,
although one study found questionnaire preference without a
matching
visual-attention effect for copied works (Straffon et al.,
2022). In
professional design, ownership bias was strongest for </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>worse
ideas</b></font></strong><font color="#000000">,
suggesting that
preferring one\u2019s own work can impair selection quality rather
than
track objective merit (Zheng & Miller, 2019; Zheng &
Miller,
2018).</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Across these literatures, the evidence
supports the proverb-like claim that people often </font><strong><font
color="#000000"><b>praise
their own pot</b></font></strong><font color="#000000">:
they
reliably overvalue their own creations, and they sometimes
overrate
their own ideas or performance relative to others. The
clearest and
strongest evidence is for </font><strong><font color="#000000"><b>self-made
objects</b></font></strong><font color="#000000">, while
evidence for
broader self-favoring judgment is real but more conditional
and
mechanism-dependent.</font></p>
<p><em><font color="#000000"><i>These search results were found
and
analyzed using Consensus, an AI-powered search engine for
research.
Try it at <a href="https://consensus.app./"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://consensus.app.</a> ©
2026 Consensus NLP, Inc. Personal, non-commercial use
only;
redistribution requires copyright holders\u2019 consent.</i></font></em></p>
<h2 class="western" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.17in"><font
color="#000000">References</font></h2>
<p><font color="#000000">John, O., & Robins, R. (1994).
Accuracy
and bias in self-perception: individual differences in
self-enhancement and the role of narcissism.. </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>Journal
of personality and social psychology, 66 1</i></font></em><font
color="#000000">,
206-19. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.1.206"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.1.206</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Krueger, J., Heck, P., & Asendorpf,
J.
(2017). Self-enhancement: Conceptualization and Assessment.
28. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.91"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.91</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Marsh, L., Kanngiesser, P., & Hood,
B.
(2017). When and how does labour lead to love? The ontogeny
and
mechanisms of the IKEA effect.. </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>Cognition,
170</i></font></em><font color="#000000">,
245-253. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.012"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.012</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Marsh, L., Gil, J., & Kanngiesser, P.
(2022). The Influence of Collaboration and Culture on the IKEA
Effect: Does Cocreation Alter Perceptions of Value in British
and
Indian Children?. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>Developmental
Psychology, 58</i></font></em><font color="#000000">, 662
-
670. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001321"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001321</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Miller, D. T., & Ross, M. (1975).
Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or
fiction?. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>Psychological
Bulletin, 82</i></font></em><font color="#000000">,
213-225. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076486"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076486</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Mochon, D., Norton, M., & Ariely, D.
(2012). Bolstering and restoring feelings of competence via
the IKEA
effect. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>International
Journal of Research in Marketing, 29</i></font></em><font
color="#000000">,
363-369. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2012.05.001"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2012.05.001</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely,
D.
(2012). The 'IKEA Effect': When Labor Leads to Love. </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>Journal
of Consumer Psychology, 22</i></font></em><font
color="#000000">,
453-460. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.08.002"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.08.002</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Norton, M., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D.
(2011). Author ' s personal copy Research Report The IKEA
effect :
When labor leads to love.</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Payne, B., Addlesee, A., Rieser, V.,
&
McGettigan, C. (2024). Self-ownership, not self-production,
modulates
bias and agency over a synthesised voice.. </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>Cognition,
248</i></font></em><font color="#000000">,
105804. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105804"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105804</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Pelled, A., Demetriades, S. Z., &
Walter, N. (2025). Labor Leads to Love, Right? A Meta\u2010Analysis
of
the IKEA Effect. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>Psychology
& Marketing, 43</i></font></em><font color="#000000">,
388 -
400. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.70064"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.70064</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Straffon, L., Agnew, G., Desch-Bailey,
C.,
Van Berlo, E., Goclowska, G., & Kret, M. (2022). Visual
attention
bias for self-made artworks.. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>Psychology
of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the
Arts</i></font></em><font color="#000000">. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000451" target="_blank"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000451</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Zheng, X., & Miller, S. R. (2019). Is
Ownership Bias Bad? The Influence of Idea Goodness and
Creativity on
Design Professionals Concept Selection Practices. </font><em><font
color="#000000"><i>Journal
of Mechanical Design</i></font></em><font color="#000000">. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042081" target="_blank"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042081</a></font></p>
<p><font color="#000000">Zheng, X., & Miller, S. R. (2018).
Uncovering Ownership Bias: The Influence of Idea Goodness and
Creativity on Design Professionals\u2019 Concept Selection
Practices. </font><em><font color="#000000"><i>Volume 7: 30th
International Conference on Design Theory and
Methodology</i></font></em><font color="#000000">. <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2018-85964"
target="_blank" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2018-85964</a></font></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in"><br>
</p>
<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/18/26 11:11 PM, Jochen Fromm
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:md5:SGoc6vfIyRzQFLPtS9dGGQ==">A
shoe from your direction. Ouch.
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">FRIAM's Second Law in action: If a theory is
suspiciously elegant, somebody on the <br>
list will throw a shoe at it.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">-J.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">
<div>-------- Original message --------</div>
<div>From: Frank Wimberly <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com"><wimberly3@gmail.com></a> </div>
<div>Date: 8/19/26 12:09 AM (GMT+01:00) </div>
<div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com"><friam@redfish.com></a> </div>
<div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] New philosophy book </div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div dir="auto">
<div>I do not prefer my paintings to Van Gogh's. You must mean
something else. </div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="0">--
8647 \u22a5 \u0250\u05df\u05df\u01dddo\u0279 \u01dd u\u01dd\u05df\u0183
\u1f45\u03c4\u03b5 oi \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9 \u03ba\u03cd\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c7\u03d1\u03c1\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd, \u1f10\u03b3\u1f70 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, \u1f35\u03bd\u03b1 \u03c3\u03ce\u03c3\u03c9.</pre>
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