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30 - Ownership for and against Control

from Part III - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2025

By
Ori Friedman
Edited by
Kevin Tobia
Kevin Tobia
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

Owners generally get to decide what happens to their property, and this is reflected in legal discussions of property rights and in how children and adults view ownership. Owners’ control over property fits with the idea that ownership serves to reduce conflicts over resources. This chapter first briefly reviews experimental research that fits with this side of ownership. However, the chapter then reviews ways that ownership can take control away from owners. One line of research work shows that children and adults think that nonowners are sometimes allowed to access and even modify property without the owner’s permission. A second line of research shows that whereas people normally have some choice in acquiring ownership or giving it up, people sometimes are viewed as acquiring and retaining ownership even when they do not want to.

Keywords

ownershipcontrolproperty lawrulescognitive development
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Jurisprudence , pp. 502 - 513
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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