Notwithstanding alternative ways of obtaining power, social power is mostly commonly acquired through either a dominance approach, where power is grabbed by the powerholder, or a prestige approach, where power is granted by group members. Although children’s attitude toward power in the dominance situation has been studied, little is known about how children understand and distinguish different ways of obtaining power. We examined the understanding of power in children aged 4–8 years by their resource allocation behavior in two social power acquisition situations. In Study 1, 4- to 8-year-olds (N = 123) gradually shifted from distributing more to the powerholder to showing no preference for either party (in the prestige situation) or to distributing more to the subordinates (in the dominance situation) as they age. Older children (6–8 years), but not 4- and 5-year-olds, were more likely to favor the powerholders in the prestige situation than in the dominance situation. In Study 2, when power did not produce unfair results, 7- and 8-year-olds (N = 48) favored the powerholder in the prestige situation but showed no preference in the dominance situation. The results suggest that children’s attitudes toward the two ways of acquiring power are gradually differentiated with age, and children’s resource allocation in the power situations is influenced by the way of acquiring power and children’s equity concern.

尽管有其他获得权力的方式，但社会权力通常是通过支配方式获得的，在这种方式中，权力被当权者攫取，或者通过威望方式获得，其中权力由群体成员授予。尽管已经研究了儿童在支配情境下对权力的态度，但对儿童如何理解和区分不同的获得权力的方式知之甚少。我们通过 4-8 岁儿童在两种社会权力获取情况下的资源分配行为来检验他们对权力的理解。在研究 1 中，4 至 8 岁的儿童（N = 123）随着年龄的增长，逐渐从向当权者分配更多转向不偏爱任何一方（在威望情况下）或向下属分配更多（在支配情况下）。年龄较大的儿童（6-8 岁），但不是 4 岁和 5 岁的儿童，在声望情况下比在支配地位情况下更可能偏爱当权者。在研究 2 中，当权力没有产生不公平的结果时，7 岁和 8 岁的孩子 ( N = 48) 在威望情况下偏爱当权者，但在支配情况下没有表现出偏爱。结果表明，儿童对两种权力获取方式的态度随着年龄的增长而逐渐分化，权力情境中儿童的资源配置受权力获取方式和儿童公平关注的影响。