Is Mind‐Reading Involved in Ownership Judgments

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7150295
AutoresRéka Blazsek (0000-0002-6240-4364, Department of Cognitive Science Central European University, autor correspondente), Christophe Heintz (0000-0003-1504-9096, Department of Cognitive Science Central European University)
Ano2025
Volume49
Fascículo8
Páginase70097-e70097
Data de publicação2025-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCognitive Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0364-0213 • E-ISSN: 1551-6709
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cogs.70097
PMID40762282
OpenAlexW4412995311
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas35

How do people determine who owns what? While existing research has identified a number of psychological and behavioral sources of ownership judgments, the role of mental state attribution has received less attention. We conducted three online experiments ( N = 1246) examining if ownership judgments rely on mind‐reading: the capacity to infer others’ intentions, beliefs, and knowledge states. Using vignettes, we tested if ownership judgments are sensitive to variations in contextual cues (Study 1), beliefs about the permissibility of taking items (Study 2), and knowledge about social norms (Study 3). We also tested if the moral aspects of a scenario affect judgments of rightful ownership transfer. Our findings indicate that ownership judgments indeed vary in response to these factors, and that they do not vary on par with moral judgments. These findings are best explained in terms of mind‐reading and support the argument that ownership is fundamentally a social phenomenon: not a relationship between people and resources but rather between people about resources

Attribution · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Linguistics · Phenomenon · Social cognition · Theory of mind · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology