The influence of dominance and prestige on children's resource allocation: What if they coexist?

The antagonistic relation between the two ways of reaching the top, i.e., dominance and prestige, has generally been accepted in recent decades. People perceive dominance as a "negative" trait that reduces the quantity of resources that should be allocated to individuals who exhibit such a trait. In contrast, prestige is viewed as a "positive" trait, that increases the appropriate amount of resources for such allocation. However, the situation is somewhat complicated because dominance and prestige can serve as different evaluative dimensions for the same person since that person could be esteemed for their expertise yet simultaneously critiqued to their assertive personality. This article first investigated how children aged 3- to 8-year-old weigh prestige and dominance when those traits coexist within individuals. The results of Study 1 revealed that children exhibited a developmental pattern of resource allocation, progressing from favoring the high-dominance to the low-dominance individual. Their theory of mind capacity predicted their preference for low-dominance individual. One professional prestige situation was also investigated which showed that children stably favor characters with high prestige. Children begin to distinguish between dominance and prestige in resource allocation at approximately 5 years. Study 2 further explored how 5- to 8-year-olds weigh the rewarding high-prestige individuals against compensating low-dominance individuals when these traits clash within the same person, which showed that children at this stage prioritize prestige rather than dominance. Taken together, these findings suggest that children are capable to differentiate between dominance and prestige as two distinct ways when perceiving social ranks.