The Influence Of Prestige-based Social Power On Resource Allocation In 3-to 8-year-old Children

How to allocate resources to individual development can not only reflect the pro-social behavior,but also reflects the moral,equitable development,resource allocation and therefore the behavior of children has been the subject of considerable attention.Social power refers to the individual or group asymmetric control over resources,children can judge the relative level of social power through age,body type,and attention behaviors,so as to adjust their social behaviors such as resource allocation.Previous studies examining the influence of social power on the resource allocation in 3-to 8-yeae-old children mainly focus on the dominance strategy,while prestige as another strategy to obtain social power,but the influence of prestige-based social power on resource allocation needs the support of empirical research.In order to enrich and expand the theoretical research on the influence of social power on children’s resource allocation,and thus promote the development of children’s morality and pro-social behavior,this paper carried out the following three studiesStudy 1:Taking 586 children aged 3-to 8 years as subjects,the prestige strategy clues under the condition of attention were used to arouse children’s sense of social power to examine the developmental characteristics of children’s social power cognition.The results showed that:(1)Most children aged 3-to 8 years can judge the relative level of social power according to the prestige strategy under the condition of attention.(2)The accuracy of children aged 3to 8 years to determine relative of social power and the ability to give relevant reasons has gradually improved.Study 2:Taking 256 children aged 3-to 8 years as subjects,the chocolate distribution paradigm and the free assignment task to investigate the influence of prestige-based social power on the allocation of third-party resources in 3-to 8-yeae-old.The results showed that:(1)When they do not have the opportunity to allocate resources equally,most children aged 3 to 8 years tend to allocate more resources to those with high social power;(2)When they have the opportunity to distribute resources equally,children aged 3 to 8 years tend to distribute resources equally between higher status individuals and lower status individuals;(3)Ability of children aged 3-to 8 years for reasons related to resource allocation given to explain the behavior gradually increased,and older children tend to give high maintenance of social rights and the reason for considering equal distribution.Study 3:Taking 123 children aged 3-to 8 years as subjects,the fixed-choice resource distribution paradigm were used to investigate the influence of prestige-based social power on the allocation of first-party resources in 3-to 8-yeae-old.The results showed that:(1)In the prosocial game,children aged 3-to 6 years are more likely to distribute resources equally with higher status individuals,and children aged 7-to 8 years tend to choose to distribute resources equally regardless of their status.(2)In the envy game,most children aged 3-to 8 years do not want others to have more resources than themselves,and children aged 5-to 8 years are more likely to be generous to the high-status individuals than the lower status individuals.(3)In the costly game,most children aged 3-to 8 years are unwilling to sacrifice their own resources to share with others.and children aged 7-to 8 years are more willing to sacrifice their resources to share with the high-status individuals than the lower status individuals.Study conclusions:Most children between 3 and 8 years old can judge that the individual concerned has high social power,and the ability to judge and explain the relevant reasons has gradually improved.Prestige-based social power has an influence on children’s resource allocation.When their interests are not involved,children aged 3-to 8yers tend to allocate more resources to high-status individuals;when they have the opportunity to allocate resources equally,they tend to distribute equally resources.When it comes to self-interest,children of lower ages behave more selfishly when allocating resources,and children of higher ages show more generosity to those with higher social power and are more willing to share.