Do children automatically encode cues to wealth?

As adults, we readily notice markers of social status and wealth and draw conclusions about individuals based on these cues. Do children do the same? Using a “Who-Said-What?” Task across 5–9-year-old American children (n = 159, Mage = 7.44; 51.6% female, 47.2% male, 1.2% non-conforming or not provided; 59.1% White, 23.3% racial-ethnic minority, 17.6% not provided) and adults (n = 182, 84.1% female, 13.7% male, 2.2% non-conforming or not provided, 54.9% White, 44.5% racial-ethnic minority, 0.60% not provided), we find that both children and adults automatically encode (i.e., spontaneously notice and remember) occupational (i.e., work attire) and quantitative cues (i.e., amount of money) to wealth, but that only adults automatically encode qualitative cues to wealth (i.e., car quality), suggesting developmental changes in which types of cues to wealth are most salient. Further, automatic encoding in children was sensitive to contextual factors; children from communities with less affluence and higher rates of unemployment were more likely to encode some wealth cues than their peers from more affluent and employed communities. Finally, between 5 and 7 years of age, children began to draw connections between wealth cues, using occupational cues to make inferences about the quantity and quality of other’s possessions. This research highlights the changing salience of wealth cues across development and suggests that even young children are likely to notice economic inequality and thus to be ready for conversations about inequality, and the origins of inequality, at an earlier age than previously supposed.