module 8

Question 1

What is psychological essentialism?

Answer 1

• way of reasoning about the world
• shaped by language (esp. nouns)
• idea that something is what it is b/c of intrinsic, immutable property
• 3 parts
• stability: core consequence of essentialist thinking
  
  • membership/identity fixed at birth:
    
    • highly resistant to change (immutable)
    • exterior transformations not relevant

Question 2

What is the 1st part to psychological essentialism?

Answer 2

1. ppl believe (intuitively) that certain categories are:
   
   • real; discovered; rooted in nature
   • claims about how our psychology leads us to think certain way about objects in the world

Question 3

What is the 2nd part to psychological essentialism?

Answer 3

2. belief that unobservable property causes things to be the way they are
   
   • essence causes observable similarities shared by members of category
   • not fooled by surface level changes

Question 4

What is the 3rd part to psychological essentialism?

Answer 4

3. belief that everyday words reflect structure of world
   
   • nouns serve as potential cues to things to be essentialised
   • despite surface difference in appearance, still see individuals as members of a kind

Question 5

How does essentialism relate to social groups?

Answer 5

• essentialism, when applied to human groups, is false
• but still tend to view some groups thru essentialist lens (identity fixed at birth, immutable, indicative of other shared properties)

Question 6

What is the role of language in shaping psychological essentialism?

Answer 6

one proposal (carrot-eater reading):
if children hear social groups marked w/ noun label, believe that ppl in those groups are deeply different kinds of ppl
- linguistic cues (e.g. noun labels)
- central question: whether children make more essentialist judgments about behaviour in noun label condition vs. verbal predicate condition

• main findings:
  
  1. by age 5: personal characteristics (e.g. carrot eating) more stable when referred to by noun vs. verbal predicate
  2. results consistent for 5 & 7 yr olds

Question 7

What are the consequences of noun labels?

Answer 7

• noun labels invite child to see it as intrinsic part of identity, outside control to fix/change
• adults & children: noun labels indicate that category:
  
  • supports more inferences
  • provides more info about ‘essence’
  • is central to identity of object
  • is relatively enduring & permanent
• when describing social categories, perpetuate stereotypes & gender

Question 8

What is minimal group bias?

Answer 8

‘‘minimal’’ group affiliation reading:

• thinking about world in terms of us & them
• key finding: classifying someone as member of in-group, even when pairings are arbitrary, can lead to explicit & implicit bias in favour of in-group and negativity toward out-group