Children expect leaders to oust intruders, to refrain from aggression, but do not expect leaders to be generally more prosocial

Abstract

Humans in every society find themselves in social hierarchies, but there is more than one way to attain social rank. Sometimes people attain rank through force—by being stronger or more aggressive than others. Other times, people attain rank by providing benefits such as protection or resources to others. The present studies asked whether children ages 4 to 8 expect the behaviors of high-ranking and low-ranking people reflect these ways of attaining rank. In Studies 1 and 2 (n = 344), children heard stories about social groups that consisted of a leader and three subordinates. Then the children were told about an action, and they guessed who had done it—the leader or a subordinate. When asked who pushed someone down, most older children guessed that a subordinate had done the pushing, while younger children seemed to consider leaders and subordinates about equally likely to push someone. When asked who kicked out a hostile intruder, children of all ages chose the leader more often than a subordinate. Study 3 (n = 216) tested whether children expect leaders to put themselves in harm’s way to protect subordinates and to be actively prosocial. Here, children in both age groups did not think leaders would put themselves in harm’s way to protect subordinates and thought the leader was less likely than a subordinate to perform prosocial actions such as helping someone up or sharing a cookie. It appears that children see leaders as providing certain benefits (such as expelling hostile intruders), but they don’t necessarily expect leaders to be more prosocial than other people overall.

Exploring Negative Beliefs About Power

“…On a group level, groups high on agency (i.e., power and status) are perceived as less warm and trustworthy than groups with an average agency (Imhoff & Koch, 2017). Some negative beliefs about power seem to be learned early in life: Even preschoolers believe that powerful leaders are less likely to behave prosocially (e.g., sharing a cookie) than their subordinates (Thomas et al, 2020).…”