Children can Recognize That Feelings-of-ownership are Specific to Particular Objects

• In Event: 3-224 - The Nature of Infants' and Preschoolers' Sensitivity to Other People's Object-representations

Integrative Statement

People often feel as though they own objects that are not actually theirs (Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks, 2003; Kirk, Peck, & Swain, 2018). Such feelings of ownership (“psychological ownership”) often arise for objects that have been used repeatedly. For instance, if you use the same table each time you visit a diner, you may feel as if you own that particular table, even though you do not. We know that young children are adept in reasoning about actual ownership, and can anticipate some of its emotional consequences (Pesowski & Friedman, 2015). However, we do not know if children recognize that people can have feeling of ownership for non-owned objects. Addressing this question is potentially informative about children’s understanding of ownership and emotions, and their awareness that certain mental states are specific to particular objects.
We conducted two experiments investigating children’s understanding of feelings of ownership. In Experiment 1, 3-7-year-olds (N=149) saw scenarios in which a protagonist used the same publicly-owned every day. For example, a girl visited a park each day, and always used the same swing. After each scenario, children were asked two questions (order counterbalanced). One asked whether the protagonist actually owned the item (e.g., “Does the swing belong to the girl?”), and the other asked whether they felt like they owned it (“Does the girl feel like the swing belongs to her?”). A question (ownership, feeling-of-ownership) by age (3,4,5,6,7) ANOVA revealed main effects of question-type, F(1,148) = 345.06, p<.001, ηp^2=.71, and age, F(4,148)=9.80, p<.001, ηp^2=0.21, and a significant interaction, F(4,148)=25.77, p<.001, ηp^2=.42. Follow-up analyses found that children aged 4 years and older were more likely to ascribe feelings-of-ownership than actual ownership, p<.001 at each age. However, 3-year-olds gave similar responses to both questions, p=.326. These findings suggest that from age 4, children are aware that people can feel ownership over things they do not actually own.
In Experiment 2, we investigated whether children recognize that feelings of ownership are specific to particular objects, and do not extend more broadly (e.g., to all members of a kind that one has used). Children aged 4-6 (N=120) were assigned to one of two between-subjects conditions. One condition used the vignettes from Experiment 1; the other condition used vignettes in which the protagonist used different objects. For example, a girl visited a park each day, but used a different swings each visit. A condition (same-object, different-objects) by (ownership, feeling-of-ownership) by age (4,5,6) ANOVA revealed effects including a three-way interaction, F(4,114)=3.84, p=.024, ηp^2=.06. Follow-up tests found that children at all ages were more likely to ascribe feelings-of-ownership than actual ownership. This effect was greater in the same-object condition than in the different-objects conditions for 5-6-year-olds, but not for 4-year-olds.
Together, the findings suggest that from age 4, children recognize that people can feel ownership for objects they do not actually own. Moreover, from age 5, children recognize that these feelings apply to particular objects that one has used repeatedly, and do not extend to all objects one has used.

Authors

• Angelina Cleroux, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ori Friedman, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author