Sound familiar?
Researchers have examined this very phenomenon, giving it a name in 2011: the IKEA Effect. It has since found its place in mainstream motivational theory.

Led by Dan Ariely, a team of American researchers conducted a controlled study to see how effort influences long-term motivation. Participants were split into two groups with the same task: fold origami from coloured paper using assembly instructions. Everyone was paid an hourly wage.

The first group—the Builders—worked with clear written instructions and diagrams. None were origami experts, so the results were far from perfect. After the task, an assistant collected the finished pieces and offered them back for purchase. Since the origami officially belonged to the researchers, participants had to buy their own creations if they wanted to keep them.

The second group—the Buyers—didn’t make anything. Their job was to bid freely on the origami figures created by others.

Then the Builders were also asked to bid on their own work. The result? Builders were willing to pay at least five times more for their creations than the Buyers.

In the next phase, researchers introduced a twist: a new group of Builders, but this time with a much harder task—no diagrams, only written instructions. These Impossible Builders produced origami that even they admitted were “terrible.” Buyers offered even less for these than for the first group’s work.
But the Impossible Builders themselves? They offered more than the first group to buy back their flawed creations.

The conclusion: the more effort we put into something, the more we value it.