Ownership and Value in Childhood

Abstract

Ownership and value go together, and understanding both is imperative for children to know how to act in socially appropriate and advantageous ways. This paper reviews how children come to think about ownership and value. We first review how children consider history, labor, and control when inferring whether objects are owned and to whom they belong. We then review how children conceive of ownership rights and how they use ownership to anticipate other people's actions, feelings, and knowledge. With value, we first touch on children's attention to physical features and norms. We then discuss how ownership impacts children's valuations of objects, stemming both from children's own status as owners and from their knowledge of previous ownership. We also review how various kinds of distinctive histories affect children's valuations. Finally, we review children's understanding of how value depends on the market forces of supply and demand.