The Limits of Fungibility: Relational Schemata and the Value of Things

Four experiments test predictions on endowment and mental accounting effects of a theoretical perspective that stresses the symbolic-relational significance for consumer transactions and that posits the placement of qualitative boundaries on fungibility. Although people accepted proposals to buy objects acquired in marketpricing relationships as routine, the same proposals in communal-sharing, authority-ranking, and equality-matching relationships triggered distress and erratically high dollar valuations. Symbolic ownership history also moderated valuations in a purely market setting, and the effects of symbolic-relational source of income extended even to spending decisions. Examination of the model’s ordinal predictions revealed stronger effects for equality-matching than for authority-ranking relationships.