Control it and it is yours: Children's reasoning about the ownership of living things

Prominence, property, and inductive inference

“…Much previous work shows that children often judge that an agent owns an object on the basis of how the agent relates to it-for example, whether the agent has used it, modified it, or controls others' use of it (Nancekivell et al, 2019). However, the present findings join a smaller body of work in showing that children also infer whether an agent owns an object by considering what other things the agent owns (e.g., Goulding et al, 2018;Heit & Hahn, 2001; also see Espinosa & Starmans, 2020). Specifically, our findings suggest that children are more likely to infer an agent owns various items if the agent owns a related prominent item.…”

“…Specifically, children infer that items near a house belong to its owner, perhaps because the house is prominent (Goulding & Friedman, 2018; also see Karpoff, 2015 andDeScioli et al, 2017 for related findings with adults). However, these findings could instead reflect reasoning specific to territory or control over resources (Espinosa & Starmans, 2020). We tested whether prominence affects both ownership and preference judgments to examine whether its impact is specific to ownership, or instead extends to at least one other kind of judgment.…”

Young children infer psychological ownership from stewardship.

“…Together, these findings show that with development, children increasingly link psychological ownership with stewardship behaviors and perhaps with concern for others’ welfare. Whereas children’s understanding of legal ownership has now been studied extensively (e.g., Davoodi et al, 2020; Espinosa & Starmans, 2020; Kanngiesser et al, 2019; see Nancekivell et al, 2019, for an overview ), less is known about their understanding of psychological ownership. One contribution of our experiments is revealing a novel cue children use to infer psychological ownership.…”

Autonomy and the folk concept of valid consent

“…According to the literature, individuals are autonomous if they can make decisions freely and shape their lives according to their own values (e.g., Mele, 1995). Prior empirical work reveals two components thought to be required for autonomy: (a) freedom from external interference or constraints (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2000;Espinosa & Starmans, 2020); and (b) the possession of certain types of decision-making capacities (Baumeister & Monroe, 2014;Beauchamp & Childress, 2013, Chapter 3;Starmans & Friedman, 2016; see also Gray, Young & Waytz, 2012). The present studies focus on the latter: the decision-making capacities involved in autonomous consent, setting aside external constraints or interference by others.…”