Physical contact influences how much people pay at celebrity auctions

Contagion is a form of magical thinking in which people believe that a person's immaterial qualities or essence can be transferred to an object through physical contact. Here we investigate how a belief in contagion influences the sale of celebrity memorabilia. Using data from three high-profil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2014-03, Vol.111 (10), p.3705-3708
Main Authors: Newman, George E., Bloom, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical estimating
Astronomical objects
Auctions
Celebrities
Ceremonial objects
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Effects
Expectations
Famous Persons
Humans
Magic - psychology
Memorabilia
Modeling
Models, Economic
Models, Psychological
Physical contact
Psychology
Resale
Social Behavior
Social Sciences
Sweaters
Thinking
Touch
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Summary:Contagion is a form of magical thinking in which people believe that a person's immaterial qualities or essence can be transferred to an object through physical contact. Here we investigate how a belief in contagion influences the sale of celebrity memorabilia. Using data from three high-profile estate auctions, we find that people's expectations about the amount of physical contact between the object and the celebrity positively predicts the final bids for items that belonged to well-liked individuals (e.g., John F. Kennedy) and negatively predicts final bids for items that belonged to disliked individuals (e.g., Bernard Madoff). A follow-up experiment further suggests that these effects are driven by contagion beliefs: when asked to bid on a sweater owned by a well-liked celebrity, participants report that they would pay substantially less if it was sterilized before they received it. However, sterilization increases the amount they would pay for a sweater owned by a disliked celebrity. These studies suggest that magical thinking may still have effects in contemporary Western societies and they provide some unique demonstrations of contagion effects on real-world purchase decisions.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1313637111