Build a piece of furniture and it becomes better in your eyes than the identical piece somebody else built. The usual explanations are , which should mean more work makes it dearer, and , which should mean holding it is enough. A set of studies in children tested both. Which survived?
Neither of them. The bias shows up at age 5, around the time a child’s is forming, and in five and six year olds it does not grow with the amount of effort invested. Ownership on its own also failed to explain why children value their own creations more, which leaves the standard theories without support.
We elevate our constructions to a special status in our minds. The is the belief that our creations are worth more than items that are identical but built by somebody else, and the object itself gives no reason for the difference.
The developmental angle turns the question into a measurable one. Study 1 found the bias emerging at age 5, which corresponds with key developmental milestones in self-concept formation, so the timing links the bias to a child learning who they are.
Study 2 went after effort, the explanation most people would offer first. In five and six year olds, the bias was not moderated by the amount of effort invested in the task, which means more work did not produce more attachment.
Study 3 went after ownership, and found that it alone cannot explain why children value their creations more. The authors report that their results are incompatible with existing theories of the bias, and propose a new framework instead, which is an honest place for a paper to end.
wat. Children valued what they made from age 5, and neither effort nor ownership explained it.
wat wat
A bias that arrives with a child’s sense of self is a different thing from a bias about sunk work, and it points at identity rather than accounting.
How do we know?
Marsh, Kanngiesser and Hood ran three studies from a developmental angle: one on when the bias appears, one varying how much effort the task took, and one testing whether feelings of ownership account for it.
What is still unknown
These studies are on children making small objects, and the proposed framework is a new proposal rather than a tested explanation.
Learn something?
Where to next
What makes a museum visit teach a child anything?children
What about reading a story to a child actually teaches the words?children
Pen or keyboard for a child who is just meeting letters?children