Why we love what we build: the IKEA effect and your question box

What you make yourself looks 60% better

You spend 2 hours wrestling with the instructions to put together a bookshelf you bought at IKEA. To be honest, the finished bookshelf is a little crooked. There's one screw left over. But somehow, you feel attached to it. The fact that it's a bookshelf you made yourself makes it special.

In a paper published in 2012, a research team of Norton, Mochon, and Ariely confirmed this in experiments. They had participants assemble IKEA furniture and asked how much they would pay for the finished piece. For furniture they had assembled themselves, participants offered about 60% more than for the same furniture already assembled.

This was named the IKEA effect. People feel more attached to things they've put effort into than their objective value would suggest. Cooking, crafts, DIY, gardening: things you make with your own hands feel more special than things you buy. This psychology is also closely tied to running a question box.

The more work you put in, the harder it is to quit

You open a question box, set up your profile, post your first announcement, answer the questions that come in with care, and share your Q&A. The time and effort you spend on all this creates attachment to your question box.

When you think "Maybe I'll quit my question box," you stop yourself: "But I've already answered 50 questions" or "I've built up some good Q&A." This feeling of "What a waste that would be" is a lot like the IKEA effect. The effort you've put in raises the hurdle to walking away.

This isn't always a bad thing. The first few weeks of running a question box are the hardest. There are few questions, and reactions are weak. It's natural to think about quitting during this time. But thanks to the IKEA effect, you can hold on: "I've come this far, so I'll keep going a little longer." And as you keep going, questions increase and your question box gets on track.

The IKEA effect works as the power that keeps you going with your question box.

The IKEA effect works on senders too

The IKEA effect works not only on question box owners but also on the people who send questions.

They think of a question, polish the wording, and press the Send button. Senders who put effort into this process feel attached to their question. A question they sent feels more special than other people's questions.

That's why senders look forward to the answer. They wonder what kind of answer will come back to the question they put effort into. When the answer is posted, the sender feels the joy of "My question was picked." This joy is likely made stronger by the IKEA effect.

On top of that, when the answered Q&A is shared, the sender feels "My question led to some interesting content." They get the sense that they're a co-creator of the Q&A too. This sense becomes their motivation to send the next question.

The Q&A on a question box isn't the owner's work alone. It's a joint work by the sender and the owner. Because both put in effort, both feel attached. The IKEA effect supports the whole ecosystem of the question box.

The paradox that asking for effort creates attachment

The IKEA effect leads to a paradoxical lesson: if something is too easy, people don't get attached to it.

A system that lets you send a question with one tap is convenient, but because it takes almost no effort, people tend to feel less attached to the questions they send. On the other hand, when thinking of a question, writing it out, and sending it takes a moderate amount of effort, attachment to the question forms.

This also connects to the design thinking behind question boxes. A question written in your own words has more value for both the sender and the person answering than one picked from a template. A moderate amount of effort leads to both better questions and more attachment.

The same goes for the person answering. An answer you took time to write with care becomes a Q&A you feel more attached to than one you dashed off in a word. When you can think "I worked hard on this answer," you feel differently when you share it.

Effort isn't your enemy but your ally. A moderate amount of effort turns your question box into your own work. Just as an IKEA bookshelf is lovable even when it's a little crooked, a question box you've put effort into becomes a special place for you, even if it isn't perfect.