ldquo;For most things are differently valued by those who have them and by those who wish to get them: what belongs to us, and what we give away, always seems very precious to us.rdquo;
nbsp;Aristotle,nbsp; ~ 330 BC
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This bias toward over-valuing assets and items (or investments) we already own is called the lsquo;endowment biasrsquo; or the endowment effect as coined by economist Richard Thaler.
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We tend to value things we own more often on account of the fact that we invested time and our attention in making the decisions to own them.
And of course, as human beings, the suffering of losing something outweighs the pleasure of receiving something identical ndash; something that would not bother a truly rational human being but then who is.
The endowment bias is almost a part of human nature with significant repercussions on how we live and also how we look at money and wealth.