Effect of transfer type on labor's role in ownership judgments

Many property issues in real life occur in the transfer contexts. Previous studies have investigated the role of creation and value change in people's use of the labor rule when solving property issues involving conflicting cues between labor and first possession, but have neglected the possible effect of transfer types. This study explored how items get transferred from the original owner to the next affected adults' use of the labor rule when assigning ownership. Eighty‐two participants (Mage = 22.10 years) read some scenarios in which a person modified some redwoods into a set of furniture after he (a) was requested to store the redwoods for another person, (b) borrowed the redwoods from another person, or (c) found the redwoods lost by another person. Participants were then asked to decide whether the original possessor or the modifier of the transferred objects was the owner, and to explain their answers. The results showed that most subjects were inclined to select the laborer as owner in the losing context, and support the original possessor as owner in the storing context. Participants were more likely to justify their answers with the first possession heuristic in the storing context, but more likely to justify their answers with transfer types in the borrowing context and justify their answers with knowledge and intention in the losing context. The study shows that transfer types affect use of the labor rule in adults' ownership judgments, and may shed light on legislation and court decisions in real life.