Category Archives: Research

My meat or my Earth?

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Getting consumers to adopt a more sustainable behavior is not an easy task. Even with the right mindset, overcoming psychological barriers and changing one’s habits can be hard.

Prior research finds that Psycholigical Ownership can be an effective tool in pursuit of this challenge. For example, PO is shown to be effective in increasing recycling intention through eliciting the sense of stewardship over our planet (Felix & Almaguer, 2019).

When it comes to sustainable consumption, one particularly stubborn area is diet. Food production is responsible for roughly 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Crippa et al., 2021; van Dijk et al., 2023). Yet many consumers, even those environmentally conscious, frequently fail to connect their dietary choices with environmental consequences.

In their recent paper published in Appetite (2025) Frem and Nguyen explore how Psychological Ownership can help tackle this challenge. The authors address a famously tough dietary topic – meat eating and hybrid meat alternatives. Hybrid meat is a meat product that contains both meat and alternative plant-based protein sources (van Dijk et al., 2023). Recent consumer research shows that hybrid meat is more appealing than fully plant-based meat alternatives both for its sensory properties and for the minimal degree of behavioural change required. Yet, many meat eaters are still sceptical.

In two studies, Frem and Nguyen show that making a call encouraging customers to help take care of  “Your Earth” (vs. “The Earth”)  increases the sense of Psychological Ownership resulting in a significant increase of Purchase Intention. Interestingly, anthropomorphising Earth also has a positive effect on purchase intention of hybrid meat products. Importantly, in case of  anthropomorphism, the stewardship manipulation (“Your Earth” vs. “The Earth”)  does not carry any added value for the purchase intention.

These findings underscore the power of messaging in shifting consumer behavior even in such challenging domains as diet. The results show that there is a variety of tools marketers can use to encourage sustainable consumption and not all of these tools need be employed at once. While some branding contexts may be better fitting for anthropomorphism, in others Psychological Ownership may be the right tool for the job.

You can read the full article here.

How do circular take-back programs shape the way we value products and what psychological ownership has to do with it?

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Sustainability is on everyone’s mind every step of the product life cycle. Many companies are implementing  circular take-back programs as part of their sustainability initiative programs. But these programs are doing more than just benefiting the planet—what consumers can do with the product at the end of its life is changing how they perceive and value these products.

A recent article by Anna Tari and Remi Trudel dives deep into the psychology behind these programs, revealing how they enhance a consumer’s connection to their purchases and increase the price people are willing to pay.

In 8 studies, Tari and Trudel find that consumers are willing to pay significantly more for the products from the circular take-back programs. The effect holds across different domains, be it apparel, stationary, furniture or tea set. The boost in valuation for take-back products is explained by increase in disposal control and psychological ownership.

Establishing a circular take-back program can be a challenging and costly task for the company: setting up the infrastructure, considering possible liability issues, forecasting the demand — are just a few things to consider. But if it is good for the environment and consumers are ready to pay more for that feeling of closeness and control, it might just be worth it!

You can read the full article here.

“Mine”, “My”, “Ours”: Exploring Psychological Ownership – Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Jon Pierce

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Psychological ownership, an inherent part of human nature, exerts its influence across all stages of the life cycle – from toddlers, to teenagers, adults, and grandparents. But what does it take for us to feel this sense of ownership?

Jon Pierce delves into the essence of psychological ownership. Throughout this conversation, Pierce illustrates how his research on psychological ownership captivated individuals across diverse spheres, enriching understanding and discourse of ownership.

In this conversation with Bernadette Kamleitner, Jon Pierce not only shares his personal insights, but also ventures into a broader societal terrain. From grappling issues like mass migration and political dynamics to probing how psychological ownership might drive individuals towards undesired behaviors, the discussion spans a rich tapestry of human experience and interaction.

Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

“Ownership is a choice – it’s up for grabs“ – Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Michael Heller

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Have you ever observed children at a playground, engaged in heated disputes over a cherished toy, all the while passionately screaming, “Mine!”? It might make you wonder: When do we claim ownership over something? Is it when we first possessed it? When we firmly grasp it in our hands? Or perhaps when we’ve worked for it?

As part of the opening of the POP Library at the WU Vienna, Bernadette Kamleitner and Michael Heller talk about Heller’s book “MINE!” and explore questions about ownership, such as what we can own and whether there is something we cannot own.

Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

“Nature is mine”: How can we measure psychological ownership of nature?

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The concept of psychological ownership of nature, or the feeling that nature is “mine” or “ours,” has gained significant attention in recent years as a way to encourage pro-environmental behaviors. However, until now, there has been a lack of psychometrically validated measures to assess this construct accurately, limiting its potential impact in research and practical applications.

Xiongzhi Wang, Kelly S. Fielding, and Angela J. Dean address this gap in their recent paper (published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology) by developing and validating scales to measure individual and collective psychological ownership of nature, using a representative sample of Australian adults.

Different to other approaches measuring feelings of psychological ownership, their measure did not capture the associated attributes of ownership feelings toward nature (e.g., control, intimate familiarity), but rather directly assessed the ownership core (i.e., “mine-ness/our-ness”). The authors developed and validated scales of both individual (“Nature is mine”) and collective psychological ownership of nature (“Nature is ours”). Their results also indicate that these two forms of psychological ownership may have different affects on pro-environmental behaviors, as collective psychological ownership was more strongly associated with environmental concern and environmental self-identity and individual psychological ownership was more strongly associated with territoriality and dominionistic beliefs toward nature. Both scales offer a new tool for researchers interested in understanding psychological ownership and promoting pro-environmental behaviors.

You can read more about the research of Wang, Fielding, & Dean (2023) here.

When is a claim of ownership legitimate? Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Joann Peck

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Ownership is a fundamental concept to human beings. We all have a natural desire to own things, whether they are physical objects, ideas, or experiences. But can we experience ownership for public places, digital data, or even our spouse? When is a claim of ownership legitimate? As part of the opening of the POP Library at the WU Vienna, Bernadette Kamleitner and Joann Peck explored these questions, revealing fascinating insights about the science of ownership.

While legal ownership is crucial in many contexts, such as property rights and intellectual property, our emotional attachment to things often goes beyond legal ownership. We can feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for things that we do not legally own, such as a public park or a shared cultural tradition. This distinction between legal and psychological ownership is particularly relevant in the digital age. Our digital identities are a reflection of who we are, and the data we generate is a record of our lives. As such, do we have a sense of ownership over our data? And can we feel a stronger sense of ownership for some things than for others?

Bernadette Kamleitner and Joann Peck discuss the role of ownership in society and our most valuable possessions. Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

Why do we keep things we don’t use? – Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Carey K. Morewedge

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Think about the times you moved to another place: How many of the boxes you packed were standing around and you hadn’t opened them for days, weeks, or months? And still, wouldn’t it be painful to give the boxes away?

This is just one example of how puzzling the science of ownership can be. As part of the opening of the POP Library at the WU Vienna, Bernadette Kamleitner spoke with Carey K. Morewedge about the science of ownership. They discuss, for instance, the burden of ownership, or how owning less affects us. Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

“Why is it interesting to study the science of ownership?” – Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Ori Friedman

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Feelings of possession and ownership affect our lives all the time: Ownership can make us like things more, it can make us feel responsible and governs our behaviour.

As part of the opening of the POP Library at the WU Vienna, Bernadette Kamleitner spoke with Ori Friedman about the science of ownership. They discuss why it is so exciting to study the science of ownership and how it affects us. Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

“Where do you see the role of possession, ownership and property in societal issues?” – Bernadette Kamleitner in conversation with Russell Belk

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Sometimes we give away the things we love – the things we treasure the most and that define who we are. How do people cope with this loss when they move to another city, lose their goods due to a natural disaster or simply exchange all their physical goods, like a CD, with digital ones?

As part of the opening of the POP Library at the WU Vienna, Bernadette Kamleitner spoke with Russell Belk about the science of ownership. They discuss the role of ownership in society and people’s reaction to losing their most valuable possessions. Find out more about the science of ownership in the video below.

Why is the topic of ownership worth studying?

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The concepts of possession, ownership and property play a fundamental role for human behaviour, social interactions and economic transactions. There are numerous resources from various disciplines dealing with exciting and surprising findings on ownership, which are now bundled and curated in the new special POP collection.

To get a first impression of the physical side of the POP (Possession, Ownership & Property) collection and to find out why world-leading experts (Floyd Rudmin, Russ Belk, Ori Friedman, Michael Heller, Jennifer Inauen, Carey Morewedge, Joann Peck, Jon Pierce, and Federico Rossano) think that ownership is an interesting topic to study and what research finding on the issue surprised them the most watch this video.