Children’s evaluations of scarce (and abundant) resources: When does the “why” matter?

Abstract

Determining value is key to reasoning about resources. Scarcity has been proposed as an easily accessible cue children can use to judge value, but prior studies have yielded inconsistent results, raising the question of whether children may be sensitive to the reasons underlying why items are scarce. We tested whether children (N = 145, ages 4–9 years) used object scarcity as a cue to value and, if so, whether they considered the reasons underlying scarcity (or abundance, as a comparison). A preference for scarcity increased with age, and children were more likely to select scarce objects when the reasons for their availability were popularity and intrinsic nature. Together, our findings suggest that researchers should consider how resource availability is framed when exploring children’s evaluations of resources.