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Thinking like a scientist: innateness as a case study.

Joshua Knobe1, Richard Samuels

  • 1Program in Cognitive Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8306, USA. joshua.knobe@yale.edu

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Folk and scientific understandings of innateness diverge, with laypeople influenced by morality over learning. Scientists can adopt a more principled, learning-based view when prompted.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Innateness is a key concept in cognitive science, but also features in pre-scientific, everyday thinking.
  • Understanding the divergence between scientific and folk conceptions of innateness is crucial for cognitive research.
  • Previous research has not fully explored how moral judgments interact with the concept of innateness in non-experts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between scientific and folk concepts of innateness.
  • To determine how laypeople and scientists judge innateness and what factors influence these judgments.
  • To explore the impact of moral considerations versus learning on judgments of innateness.

Main Methods:

  • Studies 1-4 involved non-scientists judging traits for innateness.
  • Study 5 compared non-scientists and scientists in case-based versus principle-based thinking conditions.
  • Judgments were analyzed for the influence of learning and moral considerations.

Main Results:

  • Non-scientists' judgments of innateness were unaffected by whether a trait was learned, but were influenced by moral considerations.
  • In case-based thinking, both laypeople and scientists showed moral influence and minimal learning influence.
  • In principle-based thinking, both groups showed learning influence and minimal moral influence.

Conclusions:

  • Folk and scientific conceptions of innateness differ significantly.
  • Moral considerations play a substantial role in laypeople's understanding of innateness.
  • Both laypeople and scientists can shift their reasoning about innateness from intuitive, morally-influenced judgments to more principled, learning-based scientific approaches.