Young children often prefer people high in status and with access to resources. Children also favor fairness and equality, especially when it comes to sharing. Two studies examined how children (N = 185; age range = 4.0–6.9 years, M_age = 5.49 years; 45% White, 12% Asian, 11% Black, 7% Hispanic, 24% other or undisclosed) reconcile these conflicting preferences by investigating the relation between children’s social preferences and resource allocations to White and Black children. Race provides an important case to examine how children resolve this conflict given that children show preferences for stereotypically high-status (White) people but also show awareness of systemic racial inequality that disadvantages Black people. In a costly sharing resource allocation task (i.e., Dictator Game) where participants were asked how much of a limited resource they wanted to share with a Black child and a White child, Study 1 revealed that participants sometimes chose to share more with a White child compared with a Black child but that biased giving was unrelated to children’s biased feelings of warmth toward White children. Study 2 confirmed that biased giving was unrelated to children’s feelings of warmth and instead implicated children’s beliefs about race and wealth; children who expected White people to have more wealth showed more pro-White bias in their giving behavior. Together, these results suggest that cultural stereotypes about wealth might shape children’s economic decision making in a way that perpetuates disadvantage, but they also indicate that the processes underlying resource allocation decisions warrant further study.

年幼的孩子通常更喜欢地位高且能获得资源的人。孩子们也喜欢公平和平等，尤其是在分享方面。两项研究检查了儿童（N  = 185；年龄范围 = 4.0-6.9 岁，M_年龄 = 5.49 年；45% 的白人、12% 的亚裔、11% 的黑人、7% 的西班牙裔、24% 的其他或未公开的）通过调查儿童的社会偏好与对白人和黑人儿童的资源分配之间的关系来调和这些相互冲突的偏好。种族提供了一个重要的案例来研究儿童如何解决这一冲突，因为儿童表现出对刻板印象的高地位（白人）的偏好，但也表现出对不利于黑人的系统性种族不平等的认识。在一项代价高昂的共享资源分配任务（即独裁者游戏）中，参与者被问及他们想与黑人孩子和白人孩子分享多少有限资源，研究 1 显示，与黑人儿童相比，参与者有时会选择与白人儿童分享更多，但有偏见的给予与儿童对白人儿童的偏见温暖感觉无关。研究 2 证实，有偏见的给予与孩子的温暖感觉无关，而是牵涉到孩子对种族和财富的信念；期望白人拥有更多财富的孩子在他们的捐赠行为中表现出更多的亲白人偏见。总之，这些结果表明，关于财富的文化刻板印象可能会以使劣势长期存在的方式影响儿童的经济决策，但它们也表明，资源分配决策背后的过程值得进一步研究。研究 2 证实，有偏见的给予与孩子的温暖感觉无关，而是牵涉到孩子对种族和财富的信念；期望白人拥有更多财富的孩子在他们的捐赠行为中表现出更多的亲白人偏见。总之，这些结果表明，关于财富的文化刻板印象可能会以使劣势长期存在的方式影响儿童的经济决策，但它们也表明，资源分配决策背后的过程值得进一步研究。研究 2 证实，有偏见的给予与孩子的温暖感觉无关，而是牵涉到孩子对种族和财富的信念；期望白人拥有更多财富的孩子在他们的捐赠行为中表现出更多的亲白人偏见。总之，这些结果表明，关于财富的文化刻板印象可能会以使劣势长期存在的方式影响儿童的经济决策，但它们也表明，资源分配决策背后的过程值得进一步研究。