Pieper Sarah, Weber Sara, Neuwerk Anna, Tune Sarah, Jessen Sarah
Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
iScience. 2025 Aug 7;28(9):113279. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113279. eCollection 2025 Sep 19.
Determining social hierarchies is an essential part of successful social behavior and already children are aware of hierarchical relationships. However, which cues humans use to determine hierarchies is highly variable; it includes behavioral as well as perceptual cues and changes throughout development. To investigate the interplay between different cues, preschoolers and adults participated in a behavioral paradigm comparing the impact of helping behavior (behavioral cue) and body height (perceptual cue) on the attribution of authority. Results revealed a double dissociation: Children did not use helping behavior as an indicator but attributed more authority to taller individuals. In contrast, adults ascribed more authority to a person who refused to help, but did not consider body height. A helping person was generally judged as nicer, suggesting that both, children and adults, interpreted the depicted situations correctly. Hence, our results suggest that children and adults use different information to attribute authority.
确定社会等级制度是成功社交行为的重要组成部分，儿童已经意识到等级关系。然而，人类用于确定等级制度的线索差异很大；它包括行为线索和感知线索，并且在整个发育过程中都会发生变化。为了研究不同线索之间的相互作用，学龄前儿童和成年人参与了一个行为范式，比较帮助行为（行为线索）和身高（感知线索）对权威归因的影响。结果显示出双重分离：儿童不将帮助行为作为一个指标，而是将更多的权威赋予更高的个体。相比之下，成年人将更多的权威赋予拒绝帮助的人，但不考虑身高。一个乐于助人的人通常被认为更友善，这表明儿童和成年人都正确地解读了所描绘的情境。因此，我们的结果表明，儿童和成年人使用不同的信息来归因权威。
