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Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Rossano, F; Fiedler, L; Tomasello, M
Published in: Developmental psychology
February 2015

Property as a social "agreement" comprises both a communicative component, in which someone makes a claim that she is entitled to some piece of property, and a cooperative component, in which others in the community respect that claim as legitimate. In the current study, preschool children were (a) given the opportunity to mark some objects as "theirs" (to claim them in the face of other fictitious children who would supposedly enter the room later); and (b) confronted with stickers in various spatial arrangements (e.g., piled up neatly vs. scattered), told that a fictitious child had previously chosen some for herself but had to suddenly leave the room, and then invited first to choose some stickers for themselves and second to identify which stickers had already been claimed by the fictitious child. Five-year-olds but not 3-year-olds were skillful in both of these tasks, demonstrating an understanding of the crucial role of communication in asserting property claims and the crucial role of cooperation in respecting them.

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Published In

Developmental psychology

DOI

EISSN

1939-0599

ISSN

0012-1649

Publication Date

February 2015

Volume

51

Issue

2

Start / End Page

176 / 184

Related Subject Headings

  • Ownership
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Child, Preschool
  • Age Factors
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
 

Citation

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Rossano, F., Fiedler, L., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights. Developmental Psychology, 51(2), 176–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038493
Rossano, Federico, Lydia Fiedler, and Michael Tomasello. “Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights.Developmental Psychology 51, no. 2 (February 2015): 176–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038493.
Rossano F, Fiedler L, Tomasello M. Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights. Developmental psychology. 2015 Feb;51(2):176–84.
Rossano, Federico, et al. “Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights.Developmental Psychology, vol. 51, no. 2, Feb. 2015, pp. 176–84. Epmc, doi:10.1037/a0038493.
Rossano F, Fiedler L, Tomasello M. Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights. Developmental psychology. 2015 Feb;51(2):176–184.

Published In

Developmental psychology

DOI

EISSN

1939-0599

ISSN

0012-1649

Publication Date

February 2015

Volume

51

Issue

2

Start / End Page

176 / 184

Related Subject Headings

  • Ownership
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Child, Preschool
  • Age Factors
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology