Giving or Taking: Children’s Development of Leadership Concepts in Group Contributions and Rewards

Giving or Taking: Children’s Development of Leadership Concepts in Group Contributions and Rewards | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Giving or Taking: Children’s Development of Leadership Concepts in Group Contributions and Rewards Zhen Wu, Siyu Ma, Ziyan Guo This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Leadership roles can emphasize serving others (responsibility) or serving oneself (entitlement), yet little is known about how these concepts emerge, especially from the angle of leaders. Understanding children’s development of leadership concepts offers insights into how social structures are internalized, since early perceptions may guide life-long social interactionss. Across four experiments with Chinese children (total N = 930, ages 6–12), participants heard stories about a four-member group where either they or another child was the leader. Children then judged how leaders (vs. non-leaders) should contribute to a group task and share rewards. Six-year-olds held themselves to stricter standards than others: as leaders, they endorsed self-sacrifice—contributing more and taking less—yet viewed other leaders as entitled to extra when resources were abundant (Experiment 1). A control with a non-leader “special-color” role confirmed this self-sacrificial norm was specific to being the leader (Experiment 2). With age, these beliefs shifted toward conditional responsibility: by ages 10–12, children believed leaders should contribute more only when the group needs it and otherwise favored equal contributions (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 suggests an explanation: younger children prioritized leadership responsibility over fairness, whereas older children balanced responsibility with fairness, regarding a leader’s modest extra effort as fair. These findings provide the first evidence that children’s leadership concepts develop from self-sacrifice to conditional fairness across middle to late childhood, highlighting how cultural context and fairness norms shape emerging leadership concepts. Social science/Psychology/Human behaviour Social science/Development studies Social science/Education leadership fairness self-other discrepancy social hierarchy responsibility and entitlement Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Tables 1-3 are not available with this version. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterials.docx Supplemental Material COMMSPSYCHOL250830nrreportingsummary1.pdf Reporting Summary Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7984510","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":538127844,"identity":"63e39869-ea1e-496c-a871-df92db818f7a","order_by":0,"name":"Zhen Wu","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCQglx8DA2ABCIGBAlBZjHpK1JPaASKK0yM9uPvaAse1w+n7+w20Pv+44LM/A3rxNgqHmDk4tjHOOpRsAteT2SCS2G8ueOWzYwHOsTILh2DOcWpglcsyk/24DaWFsk5ZsO8zYABSRYGw4jFMLm0T+NwnGbYfTefgPgrXYN8i/wa+FRyKHDaQlgYchsU3yY9vhxAYJHvxaJCTSgAr+pRv23Ehsk2ZsS09u40krtkg4hluL/IzkZxIMZ6zl2fuPP5P82WZt289+eOONDzW4taCGBQ/IdyBWAnEagCH+g1iVo2AUjIJRMKIAAF1ITzBZ0F44AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3655-1069","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhen","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":538127845,"identity":"a17d855e-dfc0-432c-a537-7042a2a1ab79","order_by":1,"name":"Siyu Ma","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Siyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Ma","suffix":""},{"id":538127846,"identity":"8c69862b-d297-4d53-853d-03b319447d3a","order_by":2,"name":"Ziyan Guo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ziyan","middleName":"","lastName":"Guo","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-30 03:20:45","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95831757,"identity":"f2a23a48-f983-47d3-adb0-00f06010068d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1783981,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/87386ec666c59842f24ad6f6.docx"},{"id":96239142,"identity":"599afcb4-7183-4b8e-9b65-0e45e749ea87","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:03:09","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5231,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"COMMSPSYCHOL250830.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/920ae47b34f5f14309349522.json"},{"id":96239278,"identity":"f0c64e45-0660-49d5-bd40-b395201aeaab","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:05:58","extension":"docx","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":41220,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryMaterials.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/3d381c67d8a380b2159998be.docx"},{"id":96239506,"identity":"b0c0de98-6afa-4319-b253-6f2823c87988","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:06:51","extension":"docx","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":37515,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TitlePage.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/2857a7397fd70f7a3836d8ac.docx"},{"id":96239293,"identity":"9f739ff3-5443-407e-8ee9-d9e20e29b78a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:06:01","extension":"xml","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":169786,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"COMMSPSYCHOL2508300enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/bcad6bb710f89addf7b5349b.xml"},{"id":96239524,"identity":"20968a8a-478c-4f32-a655-b6886658311b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:06:53","extension":"emf","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":6423716,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/caffb886b7a7114bcf0caf2f.emf"},{"id":96239246,"identity":"f604bf40-5ed5-4756-b781-fd358d06b643","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:05:52","extension":"emf","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":2209932,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/89e532446d816b40b55d73b2.emf"},{"id":95831765,"identity":"645db4d9-c7e7-4c09-99c0-124320c8c35b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"emf","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":2209932,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/37cde8697236523d8e95cd74.emf"},{"id":95831771,"identity":"25162cef-3a2e-44bf-b3cd-25e1e0c4bbfb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"emf","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":2155616,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/74d03522b55960a80dba965a.emf"},{"id":95831766,"identity":"102efd26-ce73-4631-9392-e68d08ebf2b2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"emf","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":2108648,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage5.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/84a97e40a975346c4438fb6e.emf"},{"id":95831759,"identity":"6db5d682-4ab8-4213-b3bd-93ec1a2f3973","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"png","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":70956,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/65fa8a41a2077702dcf2fb75.png"},{"id":96239808,"identity":"30384d42-a8d0-4acf-bc6e-5c9f344c0166","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:07:44","extension":"png","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":19611,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/8dc3b731995eed2397c7ceff.png"},{"id":96239243,"identity":"f9a1a93f-7141-4b7a-b781-4db2740f686d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:05:51","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":19611,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/ad15538a76e5980a13b43b25.png"},{"id":95831760,"identity":"19224684-fdc7-4260-82e1-8a80d6537edb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"png","order_by":13,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":36217,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/50cdf710c1222ad43e79649e.png"},{"id":96239251,"identity":"b692fee2-1b31-4144-a6eb-e70237a77e9e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:05:55","extension":"png","order_by":14,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":9933,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/f6aa5f42b42c28f0d739fe1f.png"},{"id":95831772,"identity":"746621a2-8d60-427c-97c1-93af5477b8c3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"xml","order_by":15,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":167907,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"COMMSPSYCHOL2508300structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/80262ba8d6221dea10599ee2.xml"},{"id":96239741,"identity":"a6b18142-b0a0-409f-bc25-b7f9117f1efb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:07:29","extension":"html","order_by":16,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":184805,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/b5aed75a2244dd5f76799688.html"},{"id":98436855,"identity":"d7cd9dce-e238-450f-894d-846f2661dafa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-17 16:56:21","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":710514,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1_covered_dfa1b039-20cd-4134-a620-0d6354aa8745.pdf"},{"id":95831755,"identity":"7e56da2c-19a2-4571-83cd-afb6243cdb62","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"docx","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":41220,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplemental Material","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryMaterials.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/c442642a8a9914055e910eac.docx"},{"id":95831762,"identity":"3e57bcde-5178-4610-b7d8-86dc4e8f944b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-13 12:37:22","extension":"pdf","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":3122324,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Reporting Summary","description":"","filename":"COMMSPSYCHOL250830nrreportingsummary1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7984510/v1/b944cc96736b8b556754ece1.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cp\u003eThere is \u003cstrong\u003eNO\u003c/strong\u003e Competing Interest.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTables 1-3 are not available with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","formattedTitle":"Giving or Taking: Children’s Development of Leadership Concepts in Group Contributions and Rewards","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"leadership, fairness, self-other discrepancy, social hierarchy, responsibility and entitlement","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eLeadership roles can emphasize serving others (responsibility) or serving oneself (entitlement), yet little is known about how these concepts emerge, especially from the angle of leaders. Understanding children\u0026rsquo;s development of leadership concepts offers insights into how social structures are internalized, since early perceptions may guide life-long social interactionss. Across four experiments with Chinese children (total \u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;930, ages 6\u0026ndash;12), participants heard stories about a four-member group where either they or another child was the leader. Children then judged how leaders (vs. non-leaders) should contribute to a group task and share rewards. Six-year-olds held themselves to stricter standards than others: as leaders, they endorsed self-sacrifice\u0026mdash;contributing more and taking less\u0026mdash;yet viewed other leaders as entitled to extra when resources were abundant (Experiment 1). A control with a non-leader \u0026ldquo;special-color\u0026rdquo; role confirmed this self-sacrificial norm was specific to being the leader (Experiment 2). With age, these beliefs shifted toward conditional responsibility: by ages 10\u0026ndash;12, children believed leaders should contribute more only when the group needs it and otherwise favored equal contributions (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 suggests an explanation: younger children prioritized leadership responsibility over fairness, whereas older children balanced responsibility with fairness, regarding a leader\u0026rsquo;s modest extra effort as fair. These findings provide the first evidence that children\u0026rsquo;s leadership concepts develop from self-sacrifice to conditional fairness across middle to late childhood, highlighting how cultural context and fairness norms shape emerging leadership concepts.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Giving or Taking: Children’s Development of Leadership Concepts in Group Contributions and Rewards","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-13 12:37:17","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7984510/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d3e0b135-b69d-4e41-b8fe-c48fb3e1c997","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 13th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":57234646,"name":"Social science/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":57234647,"name":"Social science/Development studies"},{"id":57234648,"name":"Social science/Education"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-16T11:35:55+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-13 12:37:17","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7984510","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7984510","identity":"rs-7984510","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}