What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours: Contamination concerns enhance psychological ownership

Abstract

Psychological ownership refers to the subjective feeling that something is mine. Although previous consumer research focuses on how different ways of engaging with a target can influence feelings of psychological ownership toward it, this research investigates the impact of a novel individual and situational factor––contamination concerns. Across four studies, we show that when consumers have dispositionally or situationally heightened contamination concerns, establishing who owns what is more important, which subsequently enhances their feelings and inferences of psychological ownership. This effect holds for different targets (brands, movies, café tables, and bands), but it does not emerge when the target is insufficiently attractive to elicit psychological ownership. Finally, this effect impacts a variety of downstream behaviors with direct implications for marketers. Theoretical implications are discussed.