Exploring the first possessor bias in children

Abstract

Even very young children are adept at linking property to owners (Gelman, Manczak, & Noles, 2012). However, some studies report that children systematically conserve property with the first possessors (Blake & Harris, 2009; Friedman & Neary, 2008). The present study seeks to integrate these two findings by testing for the presence of a first possessor bias in older children (ages 7–10) using a broader array of property transfers, and by investigating how manipulations of context–from third-person to first-person–yield ownership attributions that are more or less biased. Seven- and 8-year-olds, but not older children, exhibited a first possessor bias when property transfers were presented in a third-person context. This finding suggests that the first possessor bias persists longer in childhood than previously suspected. However, the bias was greatly attenuated or absent when property transfers were presented in a first-person context, rather than a third-person context.