Editing Endowment effect (section)

===Connection-based, or "psychological ownership" theories===
Connection-based theories propose that the attachment or association with the self-induced by owning a good is responsible for the endowment effect (for a review, see Morewedge & Giblin, 2015<ref name="Morewedge2015"/>). Work by Morewedge, Shu, Gilbert and Wilson (2009)<ref name="Morewedge2009"/> provides support for these theories, as does work by Maddux et al. (2010).<ref name=Maddux/> For example, research participants who were given one mug and asked how much they would pay for a second mug ("owner-buyers") were WTP as much as "owners-sellers," another group of participants who were given a mug and asked how much they were WTA to sell it (both groups valued the mug in question more than buyers who were not given a mug).<ref name="Morewedge2009"/> Others have argued that the short duration of ownership or highly prosaic items typically used in endowment effect type studies is not sufficient to produce such a connection, conducting research demonstrating support for those points (e.g. Liersch & Rottenstreich, Working Paper).

Two paths by which attachment or self-associations increase the value of a good have been proposed (Morewedge & Giblin, 2015).<ref name="Morewedge2015"/> An [[attachment theory]] suggests that ownership creates a non-transferable balanced association between the self and the good. The good is incorporated into the self-concept of the owner, becoming part of her identity and imbuing it with attributes related to her self-concept. Self-associations may take the form of an emotional attachment to the good. Once an attachment has formed, the potential loss of the good is perceived as a threat to the self.<ref name=":0"/> A real-world example of this would be an individual refusing to part with a college T-shirt because it supports one's identity as an alumnus of that university. A second route by which ownership may increase value is through a [[Self-referential encoding|self-referential memory effect]] (SRE) – the better encoding and recollection of stimuli associated with the self-concept.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Symons |first1=Cynthia S. |last2=Johnson |first2=Blair T. |title=The self-reference effect in memory: A meta-analysis |journal=Psychological Bulletin |date=1997 |volume=121 |issue=3 |pages=371–394 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.371 |url=https://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=chip_docs |pmid=9136641|url-access=subscription }}</ref> People have a better memory for goods they own than goods they do not own. The self-referential memory effect for owned goods may act thus as an endogenous framing effect. During a transaction, attributes of a good may be more accessible to its owners than are other attributes of the transaction. Because most goods have more positive than negative features, this accessibility bias should result in owners more positively evaluating their goods than do non-owners.<ref name="Morewedge2015"/>