Why We Love What We Build | Smartest Year Ever (Dec 4, 2025)

Why do we love what we build, even when it’s imperfect? In this episode, Gordy unpacks the IKEA Effect — a fascinating psychological bias showing that the more effort we put into creating something, the more value we assign to it.

From IKEA furniture and homemade meals to LEGO sets and Build-A-Bear toys, Gordy explores how labor becomes love—and how our brains rewrite reality to make our hard work feel meaningful.

He breaks down the original 2011 study by Michael Norton, Dan Ariely, and Daniel Mochon, explains how it connects to Leon Festinger’s 1959 cognitive dissonance experiment, and reveals why this mental shortcut still shapes everything from DIY pride to brand loyalty today.

What happens when effort turns into affection? Find out in today’s stop on Brain Hack Week.

Watch now to learn:

• The psychology behind the IKEA Effect
  

• Why our brains justify effort as value
  

• How companies use this to make us love their products
  

• The link between effort, ownership, and self-worth
  

No days off. Stay curious, stay clever.

Sources

• Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. (2012). The “IKEA Effect”: When labor leads to love. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 453–460.
  

• Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203–210.
  

• Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational. HarperCollins.
  

• Norton, M. I. (2011). Labor leads to love. Harvard Business School Working Paper 11-091.
  

Music thanks to Zapsplat.

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