1-006 - Non-obvious Factors Influencing the Value Children Place on Objects

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

People value some objects more than others. Some objects are valued because of their physical properties or because they are especially useful. However, others are valued for more non-obvious and intangible reasons. For example, people value their own property more than other objects, and some objects are valued because of their distinctive histories. The papers in this symposium examine the development of children’s sensitivity to non-obvious factors that influence how objects are valued.

The first two papers report experiments showing that children place greater value on objects they view as extensions of themselves. The first paper shows that children’s sense of self impacts their willingness to lend their property to children with good and bad moral identities, and also impacts whether children prefer unique rewards over abundant ones. The second paper shows that children value their own property more when they are primed to think about themselves, and that children also value objects they created. The third paper shows that children’s endorsements of sharing and ownership rights depends on the relationship between the agents, how the objects are exchanged, and on whether the objects are ordinary or special attachment objects. Finally, the fourth paper shows that children first expect that objects will be viewed as special when the objects were acquired or created in distinctive ways.

Together these findings highlight that children do not value all objects equivalently. They suggest that non-obvious factors such as children’s sense of self, ownership, and object history play important roles in children’s object valuations.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Madison L. Pesowski, University of Waterloo

Individual Presentations

• Objects and Me: An Exploration of Why Children Value Things - Presenting Author: Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University

• The Relationship Between Self and the Ownership Value Placed on Possessions - Presenting Author: Lauren Marsh, University of Bristol; Patricia Kanngiesser, Freie Universität Berlin; Bruce Hood, University of Bristol

• The Invisible Ties of Ownership - Presenting Author: Susan A Gelman, University of Michigan; Natalie S. Davidson, University of Michigan; Nicholaus Noles, University of Louisville

• Children Consider Different Types of Object Histories When Judging Which Objects are Special - Presenting Author: Madison L. Pesowski, University of Waterloo; Ori Friedman, University of Waterloo