IKEA Effect

QUOTE

Dan Ariely once said…

“Labor leads to love.”

(American behavioral economist)

CONCEPT

IKEA Effect

The IKEA Effect is a cognitive bias in which people place disproportionately high value on products or outcomes they helped create, even if the result is flawed or inferior.

The name comes from the Swedish furniture giant IKEA, where customers assemble their own furniture—often with frustration, but also with pride.

The key insight is this: effort creates attachment. When we labor over something, we tend to see it as more valuable, not necessarily because it *is*, but because we made it. People commit more deeply to what they help shape.

STORY

Just Add … More Ingredients?

Betty Crocker, the iconic American baking brand, had once revolutionized convenience with its “just add water” cake mixes.

Introduced in the 1950s, these mixes were a marvel of post-war food science: shelf-stable, foolproof, and fast. But by the early 2000s, sales of boxed cake mixes began to plateau, and market researchers uncovered a surprising reason.

Consumers—especially home bakers—felt emotionally disconnected from the process.

They didn’t feel like they were really baking. Pouring powder into a bowl and adding water felt like cheating, and when the cake came out, they didn’t feel pride. They didn’t value the cake as their own.

In response, Betty Crocker quietly changed the formula.

Instead of “just add water,” the new instructions read: add eggs, oil, and water. It was a tiny shift, requiring slightly more effort.

Sales recovered. Customer satisfaction rose. People once again bragged about “making” a cake.

With a tiny shift, consumers felt like co-creators, not just users. Adding eggs and oil made them part of the process. They cracked, stirred, and poured—small acts that reintroduced a sense of ownership.

What Betty Crocker learned wasn’t about baking. It was about identity. When people participate in the making of something, they don't just produce a product—they produce meaning.

And sometimes, adding an egg is all it takes to make a cake your own.