Although social attitudes toward the concept of property ownership may seem to be based on established laws, a new study suggests that they might actually stem from fundamental intuition.

In an experiment, children as young as three years old were observed to see how they dealt with the concept of private property before being exposed to social norms.

Previous studies had shown that, unless presented with compelling reasons to believe otherwise, young children generally accepted the idea that the first person to possess an object could be considered its rightful owner.

What this new study sought to establish was whether or not “creative labor” would be considered a sufficient reason to transfer ownership of an object.

The test subjects were each given a specific type of clay animal, such as a blue dog or a red cat.

They then borrowed these animals from each other and made changes to them.

In some cases, they transformed them into something entirely new; in others, they simply made minor modifications to certain features.

The researchers were curious to see what effect these two levels of creative labor would have.

What they found was that the children regarded ownership as transferred in cases where a considerable effort was made.

It was clear that transforming the animal into a completely different one was considered more important than simply adding or removing a part.

The researchers concluded that, although creativity mattered, the amount of labor was considered the most important factor in the transfer of ownership rights.