What's in a group? New Directions for Children's Essentialist Perceptions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Children’s perceptions of their social world are often shaped by pre-existing conceptualizations. In reference to specific groups such as gender and race, essentialist beliefs follow that the members of a group share an underlying and unifying “essence.” This cognitive bias provides justification for group categorization but may also have more severe negative consequences like discrimination. Here, three papers explore potential mediators of essentialist beliefs as well as preliminary downstream consequences of stereotyping and exclusionary behaviors. Paper 1 highlights some of the communicative foundations that may strengthen essentialist thinking.
Specifically it examines the joint effects of how generic (e.g., “all Zarpies”) versus specific language (e.g., “this Zarpie”) about a category, and biological versus social explanations of category properties, could lead to higher endorsement of essentialist beliefs amongst children ages 4.5 to 7-years-old. Next, Paper 2 tests the use of a cognitive framework for understanding group membership for two essentialized groups—race and gender. It explores how 3-8 year-old children increasingly apply a causal framework of mutual intentionality (e.g., both an individual and group agree to membership) to aid in their social categorization decisions. Finally, Paper 3 explores the evaluations made of ethnic essentialized groups by researching the appraisals made by children ages 5 to 12-years old regarding culturally-specific food options. Together, this symposium incorporates novel empirical research to explore the applications of children’s’ essentialist beliefs and advances current theoretical understanding of group conceptualizations.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Brenda Straka, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Discussant

• Katherine D. Kinzler, University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• The Influence of Linguistic Form and Causal Explanations on the Development of Social Essentialism - Presenting Author: Josie Benitez, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Leshin, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Marjorie Rhodes, New York University

• Intentionality, Age, and Congruence Affect Young Children’s Categorization of Essentialized Groups - Presenting Author: Brenda Straka, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Adam Stanaland, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Michael Tomasello, Duke University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Elizabeth Gaither, Duke Univeristy

• What’s in your Dabba? Children’s Evaluations of Ethnic Lunchbox Foods - Presenting Author: Shruthi Venkatesh, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Non-Presenting Author: Jasmine M. DeJesus, University of North Carolina at Greensboro