Social essentialism entails the belief that certain social categories (e.g., gender, race) mark fundamentally distinct kinds of people. Essentialist beliefs have pernicious consequences, supporting social stereotyping and contributing to prejudice. How does social essentialism develop? In the studies reported here, we tested the hypothesis that generic language facilitates the cultural transmission of social essentialism. Two studies found that hearing generic language about a novel social category diverse for race, ethnicity, age, and sex led 4-y-olds and adults to develop essentialist beliefs about that social category. A third study documented that experimentally inducing parents to hold essentialist beliefs about a novel social category led them to produce more generic language when discussing the category with their children. Thus, generic language facilitates the transmission of essentialist beliefs about social categories from parents to children.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427061 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1208951109 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Relationship Between Ethnic Essentialism and Psychological Compatibility: Roles of Ethnic Identity and Self-Construal.
Behav Sci (Basel)
December 2024
Centre for Studies of Education and Psychology of Ethnic Minorities in Southwest China, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
We examined the impact of ethnic essentialism on psychological compatibility among minority and Han Chinese college students and investigated the roles of ethnic identity and self-construal. A moderated mediator analysis was used and a multigroup comparison of the moderated mediator model across ethnic groups was conducted. The results indicate that ethnic essentialism significantly and negatively predicts psychological compatibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntensive parenting among mothers and fathers: Identifying profiles and examining differences in parental involvement.
J Fam Psychol
January 2025
Faculte des Sciences Psychologiques et de l'Education, Centre de recherche sur le Developpement, la Famille et les Systemes Humains, Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
The literature reveals particularly high standards of good parenting in Western societies, especially for mothers. However, parents as active agents of their parenting may react differently to societal prescriptions, and this variability may translate into different parental practices. The present article had two aims.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntentionality and Congruence Cues Shape Young Children's Perceptions of Identity-Based Group Membership.
Dev Sci
March 2025
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
As young as 3 years old, children rely on a mutual intentionality framework to confer group membership-that is, agreement between a joiner ("I want to be in your group") and group ("We want you to be in our group"). Here, we tested whether children apply this cognitive framework in the context of identity-based groups, specifically gender and race. In Study 1 (preregistered), we asked a large sample of 3-8-year-olds (N = 448; 224 girls) whether a novel joiner character (girl, boy) could join a group (girls, boys) based on joiner-group intentions (non-mutual, mutual) and joiner-group gender congruence (incongruent [e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDe-essentializing racial pain: Stories of Filipino health care workers.
J Ethn Subst Abuse
December 2024
School of Social Work, Algoma University, Ontario, Canada.
This article focuses on findings of a qualitative research study that looked at experiences of Filipino healthcare workers in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose is to contribute to the growing body of literature on mental health among racialized frontline healthcare workers in Canada by investigating factors that affect mental health and barriers associated with accessing services and supports among Filipino healthcare workers in Ontario, Canada. The study employed a cross-sectional qualitative descriptive design to identify strategies that Filipino frontline healthcare workers use to effectively cope with mental health issues, work stress, and structural and economic barriers to their well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychological significance of name changes: A case study of (north) Macedonia's name referendum.
Int J Psychol
February 2025
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Multiple instances of rebranding of corporations or sports teams, or changes of personal names suggest that imposed change of symbols that people identify with leads to resistance towards the symbol change. In this paper, we examine the predictive role of sacred values, identity fusion, identification and essentialism in explaining such resistance, in a unique political context of a national referendum to change Macedonia to North Macedonia. Participants (ethnic Macedonians, N = 301) took a survey measuring these variables, along with their voting intentions and behaviour, 1 week prior to a national referendum on the name change, and again several weeks later.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!