A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents of Psychological Ownership
(A2025-126452)

AUTHORS

Lucas Nann, University of Lucerne

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, psychological ownership has gained significant attention in consumer research as a means to explain various positive and negative behavioral patterns. However, recent developments in consumption—such as the increasing intangibility of goods, the rise of access-based services, and technological advancements—challenge the formation of psychological ownership through its traditional antecedents: investing oneself in the target, exercising control over the target, and intimately knowing the target. This meta-analysis first assesses which antecedents generally have the most substantial impact on psychological ownership and second examines how current trends influence the effectiveness of each antecedent. The results indicate that investing oneself in the target and intimately knowing the target have particularly strong effects on psychological ownership, and that control and self-investing can have even stronger effects for intangible and less evaluable targets.