Investigating children’s valuation of authentic and inauthentic objects : Visible object properties vs. Invisible ownership history

Hartley, Calum and Colbourne, Lucy and Lokat, Naziya and Kelly, Rachel and Shaw, John (2025) Investigating children’s valuation of authentic and inauthentic objects : Visible object properties vs. Invisible ownership history. Cognition, 254: 105935. ISSN 0010-0277

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Abstract

In human culture, an object's value is influenced by tangible properties (e.g. visual desirability and constituent materials) and intangible ownership history (e.g. authentic objects owned by celebrities are often worth more than similar inauthentic objects). Children are sensitive to both of these factors as independent determinants of value, but research has yet to elucidate how they interact. Here, we investigate whether children aged 5–11 years consider object properties or authentic ownership history to be the greater determinant of value and examine how their object valuations are influenced by owners' characteristics. In Study 1, visually desirable and undesirable items belonging to ‘famously good’ owners received higher valuations than similar items belonging to non-famous owners, whereas desirable items belonging to ‘famously bad’ owners received significantly lower values. In Study 2, children considered items made from cheap materials belonging to famously good owners, but not famously bad owners, to be as valuable as similar items made from expensive materials belonging to non-famous owners. In Study 3, physical contact with a famously bad owner had a detrimental impact on value, but worn and unworn objects belonging to famously good owners did not significantly differ in value. Across studies, we documented evidence that children's sensitivity to authentic ownership history and physical contact as determinants of value increases with age. Together, these findings demonstrate that children's valuation of ownership history relative to object properties depends on the owner's ‘essence’, and their sensitivity to owner contact as a mediator of value indicates awareness of ‘magical contagion’.