title: Children's judgments about ownership rights and body rights: Evidence for a common basis.
abstract: We report two experiments supporting the theory that children's understanding of ownership rights is related to their notions of body rights. Experiment 1 investigated 4- to 7-year-olds' (N=123) developing sensitivity to physical contact in their judgments about the acceptability of behaving in relation to owned objects and body parts. Experiment 2 used a simpler design to investigate this in 3- and 4-year-olds (N=112). Findings confirmed two predictions of the theory. First, in both experiments, children's judgments about ownership and body rights were similarly affected by physical contact. Second, judgments about both kinds of rights were yoked in development; age-related changes in judgments about ownership rights were paralleled by changes in judgments about body rights. Our findings have additional import for theories of ownership rights because they suggest that physical contact may be a crucial factor in whether behaviors targeting property are judged to be permissible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: Julia W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Van de Vondervoort
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meinz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. Electronic address: friedman@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Ori
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010067:Ownership; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012938:Social Perception; D014110:Touch
keywords: Body rights; Cognitive development; Ownership; Permission; Physical contact; Social cognition