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Abstract

The endowment effect refers to the phenomenon whereby sellers attribute more value to an item than do buyers. Given previous mixed evidence, we examined the endowment effect in a sample of 65 older adults from ages 60-92 years. Participants completed a survey packet with a specific desirable pen. The last page of the packet assigned the participant to either being a buyer or a seller of the pen used to fill out the entirety of the packet. Participants were asked to provide a selling or buying price for the pen (depending on condition), and to list six thoughts about the pen, which the participant themselves coded as positive, negative or neutral. Results showed that overall sellers provided higher prices than buyers, but that the groups did not differ in positive or negative thoughts about the pen.

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