Language Signaling High Proportions and Generics Lead to Generalizing, but Not Essentializing, for Novel Social Kinds

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Generic language (e.g., "Dogs bark") is hypothesized to promote essentializing (attributing shared internal properties) and generalizing (extending properties to other group members).
• The underlying mechanisms linking generic language to essentializing and generalizing remain unclear, with debate on whether it's specific to generics or related to broader concepts like high proportions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether generic language and high-proportion quantifiers elicit essentializing and generalizing about novel social kinds.
• To explore the role of proportion signaling versus generic language in social cognition.

Main Methods:

• Two studies involving 5-6-year-old children and adults.
• Study 1: Presented novel social kinds and assessed essentializing and generalizing responses to generics, high-proportion quantifiers ("most," "many"), and specifics ("this," "some").
• Study 2: Examined essentializing and generalizing using generics, specifics, and visual imagery signaling high or low proportions.

Main Results:

• Neither generics nor high-proportion quantifiers elicited essentializing in either study.
• Both generics and high-proportion quantifiers increased generalizing in adults and, to a lesser extent, children.
• High-proportion quantifiers generally led to more generalizing than generics in adults; findings for children varied by study.

Conclusions:

• High-proportion quantifiers, including generics, promote generalization but not essentialization regarding novel social kinds.
• The findings suggest that the signaling of high proportions, rather than generic language per se, is a key factor influencing generalization.
• Developmental differences exist in the extent to which children and adults show these effects.