1-035 - When Do Social Categories Stick? Exploring the Effects of Language, Race, and Criminality on Children's Social Categorization

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Humans have a strong tendency to classify individuals into social categories (e.g., by race, gender). Although such categorization can inform social inferences, it can also lead to inaccurate generalizations, stereotypes, and discrimination. This symposium brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars (philosophy, psychology, law) to examine how children form social categories. The first paper investigates the impact of generic (e.g., “Zarpies X”) versus specific language (e.g., “This Zarpie X”) on 31-month-olds’ formation of novel social categories. Two-year-olds formed reliable social groups only in the generic condition. In the second paper, the authors examine how children conceptualize race versus emotion as stable social categories. Participants viewed a picture of a child looking angry or happy, and they selected a photo showing how that child would look as a grownup. White 9- to 10-year-olds and racial minority 5- to 6-year-olds matched photos by race, whereas white 5- to 6-year-olds matched by emotion. In the final paper, the authors use a legal paradigm to test the effects of generic versus specific language on 5- to 8-year-olds’ and adults’ social categorization—both when being a member of a particular social group is a crime and when group membership has no criminal consequence. Results show that generic language impacts children’s and adults’ social categorization across both contexts and that discriminatory laws facilitate subsequent categorization speed. The discussant, a leader in language and conceptual development, will explore how these findings advance scientific understanding as well as inform policy, education, and the legal system.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, University of California, Davis

Discussant

• Gil Diesendruck, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan

Individual Presentations

• The Cultural Origins of Social Categorization - Presenting Author: Sarah-Jane Leslie, Princeton University; Marjorie Rhodes, New York University; Lydia Bianchi, New York University; Lisa Chalik, New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science

• Children’s Reasoning about the Stability of Emotion and Race - Presenting Author: Steven Othello Roberts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Susan A Gelman, Univ of Michigan

• When Social Group Membership is Criminal: The Impact of Generic Language and Laws on Social Categorization - Presenting Author: Deborah Goldfarb, Univ of California, Davis; Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, University of California, Davis; Katie Kennedy, University of California, Davis; Hannah Jean Kramer, Univ of California, Davis; Sarah Marie Tashjian, Univ of California, Davis