Who holds the social power? The development of children's social power perceptions in China

Abstract This study examined the development of social power perceptions among Chinese children aged 3–5 years ( N = 105). After watching videos about various social power cues, such as resource possession, resource control, goal achievement, permission, giving orders, setting norms and popularity, the children were asked to identify the powerful agents (whom do you believe is the more powerful person?) in the videos and provide explanations (why do you think he (she) is a powerful person?). Three‐year‐olds can recognize powerful agents who can grant ‘permission’ to other agents. By the age of 4, children begin to associate ‘popularity’, ‘resource possession’ and ‘goal achievement’ with social power. Five‐year olds demonstrated the ability to recognize agents who control resources as being more powerful. Analysis of the reasons the children provided for their judgements revealed that for almost every cue (except giving orders), more than 14% of the responses highlighted ‘possession of material resources’ as an indicator of power. For children aged 3–5 years, ‘resource possession’ cues may be their preferred basis for inferring and explaining power differences. These results would facilitate researchers to further unravel the mechanisms underlying the development of children's social power perceptions.