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Essentialist beliefs about social categories
N Haslam1, L Rothschild, D Ernst
1New School for Social Research, New York, USA. haslam@newschool.edu
The British Journal of Social Psychology
|April 25, 2000
Summary
Beliefs about social categories reveal two key dimensions of essentialism: natural kinds and entitativity. Essentialism is not monolithic, and its association with prejudice varies across social categories.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Ontology
Background:
- Essentialism, the belief in inherent essences, influences social categorization.
- Previous research often views essentialism as a unitary construct linked to prejudice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dimensional structure of essentialist beliefs about social categories.
- To examine the relationship between essentialism, natural kinds, entitativity, and evaluative status.
Main Methods:
- Rated forty social categories on nine elements of essentialism.
- Utilized factor analysis to identify dimensions of essentialism, specifically natural kinds and entitativity (reification).
Main Results:
- Essentialism comprises two independent dimensions: natural kinds and entitativity.
- Entitativity was negatively associated with a category's evaluative status.
- This negative association was stronger for categories perceived as natural kinds.
Conclusions:
- Essentialism is not a monolithic belief system.
- The relationship between essentialism and devaluation is nuanced and depends on category type and perceived essence.
- Understanding the dimensions of essentialism offers insights into social categorization processes.
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