The psychic benefits of ownership

PSYCHIC BENEFITS OF OWNERSHIP: Malcolm Gladwell, perhaps my favourite non-fiction author, explains them in terms of a sports team – in particular, in terms of Tom Yawkey's ownership of the Red Sox, a team in which racial integration was somewhat delayed. "Yawkey was not just a racist, in other words. He was a racist who put his hatred of black people ahead of his desire to make money. Economists have a special term they use to describe this kind of attitude. They would say that Yawkey owned the Red Sox not to maximize his financial benefits, but, rather, his psychic benefits. Psychic benefits describe the pleasure that someone gets from owning something — over and above economic returns — and clearly some part of the pleasure Yawkey got from the Red Sox came from not having to look at black people when he walked through the Fenway Park dugout. In discussions of pro sports, the role of psychic benefits doesn't get a lot of attention. But it should, because it is the key to understanding all kinds of behavior by sports owners."