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Children's social evaluation toward prestige-based and dominance-based powerholders
Masahiro Amakusa1, Xianwei Meng2, Yasuhiro Kanakogi1
1Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, 1-2, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
BMC Research Notes
|May 15, 2022
Summary
Children prefer prestige-based power, choosing competent leaders over dominant ones. This early bias favors those with admired skills, influencing social status and resource allocation from a young age.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Social power is acquired through dominance (coercion) or prestige (competence and admiration).
- Limited understanding exists regarding the early developmental recognition and evaluation of these distinct social power acquisition strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how 5-6-year-old children recognize and evaluate dominance-based versus prestige-based powerholders.
- To explore children's early preferences for social power acquisition strategies and their implications for resource allocation.
Main Methods:
- Children aged 5-6 years listened to stories featuring pairs of dominance-based and prestige-based powerholders.
- Participants selected a preferred friend and leader from each pair and predicted resource acquisition outcomes.
Main Results:
- Children consistently preferred prestige-based powerholders over dominance-based ones as friends and leaders.
- Children predicted that prestige-based powerholders would acquire contested resources more often than dominance-based powerholders.
Conclusions:
- Human beings exhibit an early childhood bias favoring prestige-based social power, influencing social preferences and resource distribution.
- These developmental preferences for prestige may contribute to the establishment of social hierarchies and promote more harmonious social environments.
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