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The Ikea effect
Why we work (hint: it’s not only the money)
Dan Ariely is a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He theorized the so-called "Ikea effect" to explain why doing certain jobs gives us more satisfaction than others.
The idea at the base of the Ikea effect lies in a simple consideration: building an Ikea piece of furniture creates a deeper bond with that object compared if you’d have purchased it. The action of assembling it satisfies us because we succeed in making something material, thus deepening the link with the object itself.
Ariely also notes that the degree of satisfaction is related to being in control of the whole creative process: from the idea (or from the pieces to be assembled) to the realization. This is why artisanal work is often tiring but more satisfying than the assembly line: the craftsman sees the output of his work while the fragmentation of the process in a factory - however productive - brings the worker towards alienation: he is in fact only in charge of one fraction of the whole process of making something and does not usually see the final product. In short, the worker does not build any relationship with what he is physically doing.
The worker is a wheel of the gear while the craftsman is the gear itself.
