Preschoolers infer ownership from "control of permission".
Owners control permission-they forbid and permit others to use their property. So it is reasonable to assume that someone controlling permission over an object is its owner. The authors tested whether preschoolers infer ownership in this way. In the first experiment, 4- and 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, chose as owner of an object a character who granted or denied another character permission to use it. In Experiment 2, older 3-year-olds chose as owner of an object a character who prevented another character from using it when prevention was accomplished by controlling permission but not otherwise. Younger 3-year-olds chose between the characters at chance. These findings indicate that preschoolers infer ownership from control of permission.
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Karen R
KR
Neary
Ori
O
Friedman
Corinna L
CL
Burnstein
D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010067:Ownership; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception