Psychological Essentialism of Human Categories

Psychological essentialism is an ordinary mode of category representation that has powerful social-psychological consequences. This article reviews those consequences, with a focus on the distinctive ways people perceive, evaluate, and interact with members of human categories they essentialize. Why...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society 2007-08, Vol.16 (4), p.202-206
Main Authors: Prentice, Deborah A., Miller, Dale T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conception
Cultural psychology
Empirical evidence
Essentialism
Natural kinds
Observational research
Personality psychology
Psychological research
Psychology
Social psychology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Psychological essentialism is an ordinary mode of category representation that has powerful social-psychological consequences. This article reviews those consequences, with a focus on the distinctive ways people perceive, evaluate, and interact with members of human categories they essentialize. Why and when people engage in this mode of thinking remain open questions. Variability in essentialism across cultures, categories, and contexts suggests that this mode of representing human categories is rooted in a naturalistic theory of category origins, combined with a need to explain differences that cross category boundaries.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00504.x