Do you still have your favorite blanket, pillow, or plush toy from your childhood?
If you do, don’t fear — you’re amongst good company.
Our partner LiveScience has the story by examining the data that drives our need to keep these reminders from our childhood. We believe these objects hold something of greater value to us than just their outward appearance or physical properties. Scientists call this belief “essentialism.”
Essentialism is why we don’t feel the same about replacing a lost object, whether it be our wedding ring, a toy from our childhood, or our cherished iPhone. The new object loses that emotional attachment the original had.
That’s one of the reasons some of us hang on to those childhood toys or objects — they hold an emotional value to us that is hard to put into words and far exceeds the physical nature of the object itself.