Editing Endowment effect (section)

==Background==
The endowment effect has been observed from ancient times:

{{blockquote|text=For most things are differently valued by those who have them and by those who wish to get them: what belongs to us, and what we give away, always seems very precious to us.|author=Aristotle|source=[[The Nicomachean Ethics]] book IX (F. H. Peters translation)}}

Psychologists first noted the difference between consumers' WTP and WTA as early as the 1960s.<ref name="Coombs" /><ref name=SlovicLichtenstein1968 /> The term ''endowment effect'' however was first explicitly coined in 1980 by the economist [[Richard Thaler]] in reference to the under-weighting of [[opportunity costs]] as well as the inertia introduced into a consumer's choice processes when goods included in their endowment become more highly valued than goods that are not.<ref name="Thaler" />

At the time Thaler's conceptualisation of the endowment effect was in direct contrast to that of accepted economic theory, which assumed humans were completely rational when making decisions. Through his contrasting viewpoint, Thaler was able to offer a clearer understanding of how humans make economic decisions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Landy |first=Frank J. |date=2005 |title=Some historical and scientific issues related to research on emotional intelligence |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.317 |journal=Journal of Organizational Behavior |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=411–424 |doi=10.1002/job.317 |issn=0894-3796|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the years that followed, extensive investigations into the endowment effect have been conducted producing a wealth of interesting empirical and theoretical findings.<ref name="Hoffman" />