The duration of ownership has been shown to increase the valuation of items that people currently own as well as items they have owned in the past, a phenomenon termed the “length-of-ownership effect.” We hypothesize that the duration of exposure to an item will foster increased pre-ownership attachment to an item and increased valuations in a manner similar to duration of actual ownership. We examine this effect in two experiments, both variations of the classic mug experiment. To induce different levels of exposure, we varied the amount of time that participants examined the auctioned item (i.e., coffee mugs) prior to participating in real dollar auctions. In the first study, participants bid in online English open bid auctions. In the second study, participants bid in first-price sealed bid auctions. In both cases of duration of physical contact positively influenced valuations (i.e., bid levels).

Data from a national survey of food shoppers are analyzed by probit and ordered probit models that incorporate elements of Lancaster's product attribute model and Weinstein's precaution adoption process. The models are used to investigate the characteristics of organic and nonorganic food shoppers. Where one shops, food beliefs, and food knowledge have the largest significant impact on the probability that shoppers buy organic food. Among the demographic characteristics, only the lack of religious affiliation, higher education, and youth are significant explanatory variables.