NPR: Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with what you've accomplished? Do the colors you've picked for your PowerPoint background pop so beautifully that you just have to sit back and admire your own genius?
If so, get in line: You're the latest person to fall victim to the Ikea Effect.
The name for this psychological phenomenon derives from the love millions of Americans display toward their self-assembled furniture (or, dare we say it, their badly self-assembled furniture) from the do-it-yourself store with the Scandinavian name.
18 comments:
This is an extremely common phenomenon, and I find it endlessly amusing that it has been dubbed the 'Ikea Effect'. I feel that this is a problem that arises all the time in theater, especially in the educational setting. Students become so focused on their ideas and designs that they cannot always tell when a better solution comes alone. Designers have been known to grow attached to a design and take personal offense if it needs to be altered or completely changed for aesthetic, budgetary, or conceptual reasons. It's a hard lesson for anyone to learn, but it's a good one to keep in mind. Sometimes you need an outside opinion to tell you that an idea is bad, and you have be willing to work with that feedback and make changes without taking anything personally. After all, in theater our end goal is to create a successful production. If the idea you're hooked on isn't going to make the production a success, then you're not doing everything you can.
I have to agree with Jess. I myself often find that I really enjoy my design until I hear a critique on it, then my mind is opened up, I see there could be much improvement, and I'm unhappy with my product. When people become so attached to a singe project, it can be hard for them to reopen to ideas that could need to be heard in order to achieve a coherence for the overall product, like individual designers working on a show. I think that the idea of labor leading to love is an interesting one. Working in the theatre I find that this notion is true - the more I work on show the more I grow to love it.
I face this problem so often in design class. I'm not particularly good at tiny, crafty things, but even though they might not look fantastic, there's almost a guarantee that I've spent many hours laboring over it. Regardless of how my final product looks, I'm going to love it. And, often I'm "blinded" by that love. Occasionally I'm able to step back and see the errors, and then I fix them. But, often I only see the errors after comparing my work to other people's projects. I wish there was a better way to overcome this, but there comes an automatic defense mechanism built in where if someone were to attempt to critique something that I spent 8 hours on doing detail work on, harshly, I'd be angry. It's like this weird feeling that "they don't have the right to comment, they didn't make it, I did". In reality, though, all work needs to be critiqued, and letting go of the work is even harder than the 8 hours of detail work.
I agree with all of the comments above and think that this article points out the interesting problems that we all tend to face in the theatre/art/performing art worlds. We put our heart and soul into a design. We take hours to find a solution to what we have been challenged by. We often find a solution we like, and when we do, it is often critiqued. These critiques can be helpful but they can also set someone back a great deal. In our class setting, we can see errors in draftings, but in our design projects, I don't feel like what we do is perceived as errors to Susan. If we do something that may not be exactly what she wanted, she tends to embrace the project and look at them in the same fashion. People can be blinded by there work, but they can also see all of the "mistakes" that others point out after that idea that they are mistakes has been planted in their minds.
I can understand what Kelly said how the people don't truly understand what went into something. I think that way with art the piece could be extremely simple but could have taken hours to design. I think this is also a form of the "ikea effect" but it is more of an artistic aspect. So an artist may have taken hours to decide the positioning of one object out of three. So it's a personal decision of what is good and the "ikea effect" adds to any endeavor.
I always know this phenomenon, but it is interesting that this phenomenon is called 'Ikea Effect.' I think this effect especially works for me and people in theatrical areas. Especially for me, when I was taking props as my mini of stagecraft, I felt so accomplished and competent after building props. For example, I made a suitcase for In to the Woods and i was fascinated to see my achievement placed on the stage. Not only this is applied to stagecraft, but also it applies tor design class and stuff I do during production call. It was also interesting and really provoked my thought when there was a question: it isn't love that leads to labor, but labor that leads to love? My answer is to the latter because I,too, believe that it is labor that leads the builder to have special affection to the object after hardworking.
Although the points made in this article are valid, and we have all at some point fallen victim to the "Ikea Effect," there are a few things it seems are missing. Sure, everyone loves what they've worked so hard to achieve. That feeling of accomplishment, pride, and fulfillment is hard to avoid. But there are definitely other items I cherish - namely, ones that are made FOR me. If someone puts love and labor into a project not for themselves but for me, I find it almost more special than when I make it myself. It gives a feeling of being cherished when people donate their time for each other, and make something they are proud of FOR SOMEONE ELSE. The fact that they went through all that work just to give it away shows high regard, and should not be passed over in the context of this article.
I love the name for this. & I find my self strongly agreeing with it, but only in a domestic setting. But at least personally I dont feel like this applies to art.
I actually bought Ikea furniture for my dorm and my roommate and I built it & we set up our whole apartment and now it feels like a little house. We are so proud of it because it is something we did on our own for the first time & i do actually feel like "look! I can make and take care of a home!" So much of our stuff is DIY but we are just that much more proud.
But then art is completely different. The reason I do art is because I love it. I often am not at all pleased with what my end result is. Sometimes this will even lead me to redo something. & I have noticed this in a lot of us, how we talk down about our work and often even perceive it as worse than it actually is and then someone else comes along and tells you how amazing it is but even then your still skeptical.
I will love that IKEA table, but its crookedness will probably also frustrate me. I think this is mostly because there is a way that its supposed to look, so it isn't really "my design." However, with something that is my design, I often have this problem. I'm a little bit stubborn to, so I'm open to critiques but sometimes I take them with too many grains of salt. This is something I am constantly trying to work on. I think its important to like what you do. It's important to be confident about it. But it's also important to be willing to change it.
The Ikea effect is an interesting one that I have never thought about before. I see a lot of relevance in the world of theatre. Like in the article the people who spend a lot of time working on an element of a show may learn to love it even though it is in reality a very low quality. Because small groups of people spend so much time working on projects in theatre I think it must be very common for people do choose to stick with the project they think is good because they made it. Another way that the Ikea Effect could play a role in theatre is if shows allowed audiances to feel as though they had put in work to make the show so that they will love it more. This could be an interesting idea to play with in the world of interactive theatre.
the Ikea Effect can be considered a part of the psychology of selling theatre. People want to see something interesting created by people and in a place that logic says it shouldnt exist. This is also why sleep no more has such a great effect on audiences because they create the theatre that they are witnessing. with the only rule being find something interesting and follow it the audiences creates what they are going to see.
the Ikea Effect can be considered a part of the psychology of selling theatre. People want to see something interesting created by people and in a place that logic says it shouldnt exist. This is also why sleep no more has such a great effect on audiences because they create the theatre that they are witnessing. with the only rule being find something interesting and follow it the audiences creates what they are going to see.
I don't think I've ever read a more truthful article. Like most of the comments, I constantly am facing this issue when it comes to design class. It is never until i talk to someone else about my project that i can ever actually tell if what i have done is a good idea. I think people are almost always in love with something that they've spent a lot of time on. it's also interesting how a person's skill sets growing can change the prospective (and give a sort of clarity) to their previous work. I think one of the benefits of working so closely with other people in a studio is how we all help each other see the problems and help each other find solutions to the weaknesses in our projects.
I definitely agree with this phenomenon. Through all of our design projects this year, I have found myself to be fondly attached to my work because I made it with my hands and my ideas came into fruition. Even with the mini wire sculptures I have made, even though they are menial, I find that they are something I take pride in and can't seem to easily just throw out. This phenomenon is more common than we think. It is one of those things that once you read or hear about it, it becomes more evident to you as you look for examples.
Like most of the people in this thread this effect is most obvious for me in design class. Our first project in design was a labor of love and I was really proud of it and it was not until the end of the semester that looked back and could tell how dreadful it actually was. But I've also definitely felt the ikea effect when making general purpose stuff. When making things yourself you see them much better than they actually are because you're proud of your work.
So this is pretty interesting. I find it common sense that anything that a person works on and puts effect toward that they will be more prideful in that effect. It is very interesting to me that the effect has been taken so far as to possibly improve sales of Ikea. Maybe? Just that train of thought is quite interesting to me. Labor Lends to Love. So the more effect you put into something the possibility of the more love you have for something. Well that is something to think about. I would agree that the things I spend the most time at during the week,School, that I love in some fashion of the word and that I very proud of my accomplishments of entering grad school.
This makes sense, and is the reason I tend to seek other's advice on things before I call it a final product. I may be loath to discard an idea because I have spent time creating it, even if the idea is impractical. People tend not to want to acknowledge that something they've worked on isn't the best it can be. They also don't want to admit that the time they've spent on something has led to a less than optimal end product. This is why you often need an outside perspective on things, to prevent the ikea effect
The Ikea Effect? Are we really giving Ikea free PR? Anyway interesting article, but I agree with what Adam said, we are more prone to like/love things that we build/make. That's human nature. Maybe theaters should choose 10 of their previous patrons or potential new patrons to have guest roles in their season of plays each year. Maybe they can get new audiences that way.
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