Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ownership: The Extended Self and the Extended Object

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Psychological Ownership and Consumer Behavior

Abstract

This chapter updates our notions of ownership in several ways. It notes changes in traditional ownership with the dematerialization of possessions with digitization of books, newspapers, films, letters, and music. It also considers how the rise of the sharing economy affects ownership. It considers who and what may be owned and by whom or what in the case of slaves, AI, the IoT, and humanoid robots. It considers military and ethical considerations that arise with battlefield robots and drones. It introduces decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); it considers human-robot relations, including sexual relations; and it discusses robot rights. Finally, it considers how such factors affect the extended self and offers a counterpart in the extended object.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aggarwal, P., & McGill, A. (2007). Is that car smiling at me? Schema congruity as a basis for evaluating anthropomorphized products. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 468–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amaro, A. (2005). Three robes is enough. In S. Kaza (Ed.), Hooked! Buddhist writings on greed, desire, and the urge to consume (pp. 183–197). Boston: Shambhala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (2015). This guy wants to save robots from abusive humans. Motherboard, February 23, http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-plan-to-protect-robots-from-human-cruelty. Last accessed 25 Sept 2016.

  • Anderson, M., & Anderson, S. L. (Eds.). (2011). Machine ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bardhi, F., & Eckhardt, G. (2012). Access-based consumption: The case of car sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(December), 881–898.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bardhi, F., & Eckhardt, G. (2015). The sharing economy isn’t about sharing at all. Harvard Business Review, January 28, https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-sharing-economy-isnt-about-sharing-at-all. Last accessed 24 Sept 2016.

  • Bardhi, F., Eckhardt, G., & Arnould, E. (2012). Liquid relationship to possessions. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(3), 510–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1968/1996). The system of objects, James Benedict, trans., London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (1988). Possessions and the extended self. Journal of Consumer Research, 15(2), 139–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (1991). Possessions and the sense of past. In R. Belk (Ed.), Highways and Buyways: Naturalistic research from the consumer behavior odyssey (pp. 114–130). Provo: Association for Consumer Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (1995). Collecting in a consumer society. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2007). Why not share rather than own? Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611(May), 126–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2010). Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 715–734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2011). Philosophies for less consuming societies. In K. Ekström & K. Glans (Eds.), Beyond the consumption bubble (pp. 205–220). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2012). People and things. In V. Wells & G. Foxall (Eds.), Handbook of developments in consumer behaviour (pp. 15–46). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(October), 477–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2014a). Art collecting as a personal and public practice in a digital age. In D. O’Reilly, R. Rentschler, & T. Kirchner (Eds.), Routledge companion to arts marketing (pp. 243–255). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2014b). Sharing versus Pseudo-Sharing in Web 2.0. The Anthropologist, 18(1), 7–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2014c). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1595–1600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2016). Comprendre le Robot: Commentaires sur Goudey et Boniin (2016), (“Understanding the Robot: Comments on Goudey and Bonnin”). Recherche et Applications en Marketing, 31(4), 89–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2017a). Consumers in an age of autonomous and semi-autonomous machines. In J. Sherry Jr. & E. Fischer (Eds.), Currents in consumer culture theory (pp. 5–17). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (2017b). Sharing without caring. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R. (forthcoming). Robots, cyborgs, and consumption. In A. Lewis (Ed.), Handbook of psychology and economic behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk, R., Wallendorf, M., & Sherry Jr., J. (1989). The sacred and the profane in consumer behavior: Theodicy on the odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research, 15(1), 1–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S., & Ponsonby-McCabe, S. (Eds.). (2014). Brand mascots and other marketing animals. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calverley, D. (2008). Imagining a non-biological machine as a legal person. AI and Society, 22, 523–537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calverley, D. (2011). Legal rights for machines: Some fundamental concepts. In M. Anderson & S. Anderson (Eds.), Machine ethics (pp. 213–227). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chace, C. (2015). Surviving AI: The promise and peril of artificial intelligence. New York: 3Cs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Rochberg-Halton, E. (1981). The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Den of Geek. (2015). Comparing humans to Swedish original, real humans. Den of Geek! http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/humans/248234/comparing-humans-to-swedish-original-real-humans. Last accessed 29 July 2016.

  • Denegri-Knott, J., Watkins, R., & Wood, J. (2012). Transforming digital virtual goods into meaningful possessions. In M. Molesworth & J. Denegri-Knott (Eds.), Digital virtual consumption (pp. 76–91). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descartes, R. (1976). Animals are machines. In T. Regan & P. Singer (Eds.), Animal rights and human obligations (pp. 60–66). Englewood Cliffs, N J: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dibbel, J. (2000). Unpacking my record collection FEED, March, http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/feed_records.html. Last accessed 26 Sept 2016.

  • Eckhardt, G., & Bardhi, F. (2016). The relationship between access practices and economic systems. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(2), 210–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epp, A. M., & Price, L. L. (2008). Family identity: A framework of identity interplay in consumption practices. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(June), 50–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Floridi, L. (Ed.). (2010). The Cambridge handbook of information and computer ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, M. (2015). Rise of the robots: Technology and the threat of a jobless future. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forty, A. (1999). Introduction. In A. Forty & S. Küchler (Eds.), The art of forgetting (pp. 1–18). Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francione, G. (2009). Animals as persons: Essays on the abolition of animal exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, J. (1922). The golden bough: A study of magic and religion. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geist, C. (1978). Historic sites and monuments as icons. In R. B. Browne & M. Fishwick (Eds.), Icons of America (pp. 57–66). Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giles, D. C., Pietrzykowski, S., & Clark, K. E. (2007). The psychological meaning of personal record collections and the impact on changing technological forms. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28, 429–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glenn, J., & Hayes, C. (2007). Taking things seriously: 75 objects with unexpected significance. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goudey, A., & Bonnin, G. (2016). Must smart objects look human? Study of the impact of anthropomorphism on the acceptance of companion robots. Recherche et Applications en Marketing, 31(2).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregson, N., & Crewe, L. (2003). Second-hand cultures. Oxford: Berg.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Guarini, M., & Bello, P. (2012). Robotic warfare: Some challenges in moving from noncivilian to civilian. In P. Lin, K. Abney, & G. Bekey (Eds.), Robot ethics: The ethical and social implications of robotics (pp. 129–144). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habibi, M., Kim, A., & Laroche, M. (2016). From sharing to exchange: An extended framework of dual modes of collaborative nonownership consumption. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(2), 277–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hetherington, K. (2004). Secondhandedness: Consumption, disposal, and absent presence. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22, 157–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellström, T. (2013). On the moral responsibility of military robots. Ethics, Information, Technology, 15, 99–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodder, I. (2012). Entangled: An archaeology of the relationships between humans and things. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology (Vol. 1). New York: Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B. (2008). Persons and things. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, P. (2014). Introduction: Spirits and things in the making of the Afro-Atlantic World. In P. Johnson (Ed.), Spirited things: The work of “possession” (pp. 1–22). Afro-Atlantic Religions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung, H., Bardzell, S., Blevis, E., Pierce, J., & Stolterman, E. (2011). How deep is your love: Deep narratives of ensoulment and heirloom status. International Journal of Design, 5(1), 59–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, J. (2015). Humans need not apply: A guide to wealth and work in the age of artificial intelligence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelion, L. (2015). Could driverless cars own themselves BBC News, Technology, February 15, 2015, online edition, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30998361. Last accessed 25 Sept 2016.

  • Klein, N. (2009). No logo at ten. In N. Klein (Ed.), No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies, 10 th anniversary edition (pp. i–xxvii). Toronto: Vintage Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landwehr, J., McGill, A., & Herrmann, A. (2011). It's got the look: The effect of friendly and aggressive ‘facial’ expressions on product liking and sales. Journal of Marketing, 75(3), 132–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lange, M. (1996). ‘Life, artificial life,’ and scientific explanation. Philosophy of Science, 63(2), 225–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langton, C. (1986). Studying artificial life with cellular automata. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 22(1–3), 120–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lanier, C., Rader, S., & Fowler, A. (2013). Anthropomorphism, marketing relationships, and consumption worth in the Toy Story Trilogy. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(1–2), 26–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy, D. (2007). Love + sex with robots: The evolution of human-robot relationships. New York: Harper Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, P., Abney, K., & Bekey, G. (Eds.). (2012). Robot ethics: The ethical and social implications of robotics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loeke, J. (1690). Two treatises of government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luedicke, M. K., Thompson, C. J., & Giesler, M. (2010). Consumer identity work as moral protagonism: How myth and ideology animate a brand-mediated moral conflict. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(April), 1016–1032.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacGregor, N. (2010). A history of the world in 100 objects. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malafouris, L. (2013). How things shape the mind: A theory of material engagement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchant, G., Allenby, B., Arkin, R., Barrett, E., Borenstein, J., Gaudet, L., et al. (2011). International governance of autonomous military robots. Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, 12. http://www.stir.org/cite.cgl?volume=12&article=7. Last accessed 21 July 2016

  • Markoff, J. (2015). Machines of loving grace: The quest for common ground between humans and robots. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCourt, T. (2005). Collecting music in the digital realm. Popular Music and Society, 28(2), 249–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCracken, G. (1988). Culture and consumption: New approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (2001). Possessions. In D. Miller (Ed.), Home possessions (pp. 107–121). Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, A. (2009). Influence of contagious versus noncontagious product groupings on consumer preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(June), 73–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mittal, B. (2006). I, me, and mine – How products become consumers’ extended selves. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5(November-December), 550–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molesworth, M., Watkins, R., & Denegri-Knott, J. (2016). Possession work on hosted digital consumption objects as consumer ensnarement. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(1), 246–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nemeroff, C., & Rozin, P. (1994). The contagion concept in adult thinking in the United States: Transmission of germs and interpersonal influence. Ethos, 22(2), 158–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, G., Diesendruck, G., & Bloom, P. (2011). Celebrity contagion and the value of objects. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(August), 215–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, G., & Dhar, R. (2014). Authenticity is contagious: Brand essence and the original source of production. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(June), 371–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nishio, S., Watanabe, T., Ogawa, K., & Ishiguro, H. (2013). Body ownership transfer to Teleoperated android robot. Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, 31(9), 854–857.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nourbakhsh, I. (2013). Robot futures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuwer, R. (2013). Mistreated robots now have a advocacy group Smithsonian.com , February 13, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mistreated-robots-now-have-a-advocacy-group-16599937/?no-ist. Last accessed 5 Sept 2015.

  • Petrelli, D., & Whittaker, S. (2010). Family memories in the home: Contrasting physical and digital mementos. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 14, 142–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plotz, J. (2008). Portable property: Victorian culture on the move. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Riegl, A. (1903/1982). The modern cult of monuments: Its character and its origin, Karin Bruckner and Karen Williams, trans., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 21–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riskin, J. (2007). Genesis redux: Essays in the history and philosophy of artificial life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rudmin, F. (2016). The consumer science of sharing: A discussant’s observations. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(2), 198–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sartre, J.-P. (1943). Being and nothingness. In A phenomenological essay on ontology. New York: Philosophical Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schau, H., & Gilly, M. (2003). Are we what we post? Self-presentation in personal web space. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(December), 385–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheutz, M. (2012). The inherent dangers of unidirectional emotional bonds between humans and social robots. In P. Lin, K. Abney, & G. Bekey (Eds.), Robot ethics: The ethical and social implications of robotics (pp. 205–222). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharkey, N., & Sharkey, A. (2010). The crying shame of robot nannies: An ethical appraisal. Interaction Studies, 11(2), 161–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw-Garlock, G. (2011). Loving machines: Theorizing human and sociable-technology interaction. In M. Lamers & F. Verbeek (Eds.), Human-robot personal relationships (pp. 1–10). Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the 21st century. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullins, J. P. (2012). Robots, love, and sex: The ethics of building a love machine. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, 3(5), 398–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sundararajan, A. (2016). The sharing economy: The end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swan, M. (2015). Blockchain: Blueprint for a new economy. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, D., & Tapscott, A. (2016). Blockchain revolution: How the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world. Toronto: Penguin Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vechinski, M. (2013). Collecting, curating, and the magic circle of ownership in a postmaterial culture. In K. Moist & D. Banash (Eds.), Contemporary collecting: Objects, practices, and the fate of things (pp. 13–29). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, R., & Molesworth, M. (2012). Attachment to digital virtual possessions in videogames. In R. Belk, S. Askegaard, & L. Scott (Eds.), Research in consumer behavior (Vol. 14, pp. 153–171). Bingley UK: Emerald.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, R., Sellen, A., & Lindley, S. (2015). Digital collections and digital collection practices. In CHI '15 - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York: ACM, pp. 3423–3432.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wattanasuwan, K. (2005). The self and symbolic consumption. Journal of the American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 6(1), 179–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitby, B. (2012). Do you want a robot lover? The ethics of caring technologies. In P. Lin, K. Abney, & G. Bekey (Eds.), Robot ethics: The ethical and social implications of robotics (pp. 233–248). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeoman, I., & Mars, M. (2015). Robots, men and sex tourism. Futures, 44(4), 365–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zwick, D., Bonsu, S., & Darmody, A. (2008). Putting consumers to work: ‘Co-creation’ and new marketing govern-mentality. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8(2), 163–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Russell Belk

Authors
  1. Russell Belk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell Belk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    Joann Peck

  2. Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Suzanne B. Shu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Belk, R. (2018). Ownership: The Extended Self and the Extended Object. In: Peck, J., Shu, S. (eds) Psychological Ownership and Consumer Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77158-8_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation