The IKEA-Betty Crocker Effect or Why Adults Love DIY Work
Ah, the adulthood, the time we think it’s a great idea to spend the Saturday at our favourite Sweden store, to unfold the rollercoaster of emotions — from dragging that BILLY bookcase through the labyrinthine IKEA halls to our apartment to the love-hate relationship of a DIY session, and finally, the triumphant satisfaction of seeing it all come together.
That’s called the IKEA effect: a cognitive bias that explains that people place higher value on things they helped to build or create.
Either way, we did a good job and pat ourselves on the back, imagining we’ve slipped into the shoes of our grandparents, the legendary builders of entire houses and creators of banquets from scratch… or was it really like that?
Not that much…our grandmas may hide some dirty little secrets, too. Back in the ’50s, a food company created a cake mix called Betty Crocker that only required adding water, mixing it up, baking and tan dan! A cake was created almost effortlessly. This was a revolutionary invention at the time, promising to make baking a breeze for housewives.
That revolutionary food invention should have been flying off the shelves, but… it didn’t. That didn’t make sense; how is something created to facilitate housewives’ lives failing miserably? They brought the psychologists into the mix.
Why were consumers resisting this fantastic product? The answer lies in guilt. Many housewives didn’t feel a fulfilling sense of pride after baking a cake for their family or guests because they didn’t feel they had put any work into it.
To address this, the company changed the product and the packaging. Now, it required not just water but also an egg — as clearly stated on the box.
After this transformation, the Betty Crocker cake mix became a resounding success. The simple act of adding an egg made the housewives feel like they had indeed created the cake, restoring their sense of pride.
What does this tell us? When something comes too easily, we tend to undervalue it. But when we put effort into it, we attribute much more value to it. This is where the IKEA effect meets the Betty Crocker effect, a powerful lesson in the value of effort and creativity.
Like the story? Share it with your grandma; I’m sure she will like it.