Children and Adults Hold Leaders as Both Responsible and Entitled

Abstract Leadership hierarchies are one form of social hierarchical relationships that are ubiquitous in human social lives. Little is known about children's perceptions of leadership hierarchies in the context of group collaboration and how these perceptions change with age. Across three studies, we examined these questions in 5–8‐year‐old children ( N = 175; 49.14% girls) and adults ( N = 79; 53.16% women). Children and adults heard stories about group cooperation involving both resource allocation and labor contributions. Studies 1 and 2 showed that in resource allocation situations, 5–8‐year‐olds and adults expected leaders to take more resources from a joint pool than non‐leaders and expected authoritative figures (i.e., teachers) to allocate more resources to leaders than non‐leaders. In labor contribution situations, where participants were asked who would clean an additional desk, children and adults expected leaders to undertake additional tasks compared to non‐leaders. Study 3 ruled out the possibility that younger children's responses were driven by the social salience of the leader compared to non‐leaders, rather than the leadership status. Overall, these results provide evidence that children and adults hold leaders both as both more responsible and entitled individuals than non‐leaders.