scholarly journals Does It Matter How We Speak About Social Kinds? A Large, Pre-Registered, Online Experimental Study of How Language Shapes the Development of Essentialist Beliefs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Leshin ◽  
Sarah-Jane Leslie ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Social Kinds ◽  
Generic Language ◽  
Critical Aspects

A problematic way to think about social categories is to essentialize them—to treat particular differences between people as marking fundamentally distinct social kinds. From where do these beliefs arise? Language that expresses generic claims about categories elicits some aspects of essentialist thought, but the scope of these effects remains unclear. The present study (N = 204, ages 4.5-8 years, tested via a new online lab) found that generic language increases two critical aspects of essentialist thought, including beliefs that (1) category-related properties arise from intrinsic causal mechanisms and (2) category boundaries are inflexible. These findings have implications for understanding the spread of essentialist beliefs across communities and the development of inter-group behavior.

ChemInform Abstract: An Experimental Study of Special Leaving Group Behavior in the Reaction of Arylidenebarbituric Acids with Carbon Nucleophiles.

ChemInform ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (20) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Bigdeli ◽  
Enayatollah Sheikhhosseini ◽  
Azizollah Habibi ◽  
Saeed Balalaie
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Carbon Nucleophiles ◽  
Leaving Group

There is no privileged link between kinds and essences early in development

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes ◽  
Frank Keil
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Category Representation ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Cultural Properties ◽  
Generic Language ◽  
American Children ◽  
Causal Structures

[Please note the Y-axis for Figure 1 is incorrect. It should read: "Percent endorsing formal explanations."] According to the dominant view of category representation, people preferentially infer that kinds (richly structured categories) reflect essences. Generic language (“Boys like blue”) often occupies the central role in accounts of the formation of essentialist interpretations – especially in the context of social categories. In a pre-registered study (N = 240 American children, ages 4-9), we tested whether children assume essences in the presence of generic language or whether they flexibly assume diverse causal structures. Children learned about a novel social category described with generic statements containing either biological properties or cultural properties. Although generic language always led children to believe that properties were non-accidental, young children (4-5) in this sample inferred the non-accidental structure was socialization. Older children (6-9) flexibly interpreted the category as essential or socialized depending on the type of properties that generalized. We uncovered early-emerging flexibility and no privileged link between kinds and essences.

scholarly journals There is no privileged link between kinds and essences early in development

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (20) ◽  
pp. 10633-10635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes ◽  
Frank C. Keil
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Category Representation ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Cultural Properties ◽  
Generic Language ◽  
American Children ◽  
Causal Structures

According to the dominant view of category representation, people preferentially infer that kinds (richly structured categories) reflect essences. Generic language (“Boys like blue”) often occupies the central role in accounts of the formation of essentialist interpretations—especially in the context of social categories. In a preregistered study (n = 240 American children, ages 4 to 9 y), we tested whether children assume essences in the presence of generic language or whether they flexibly assume diverse causal structures. Children learned about a novel social category described with generic statements containing either biological properties or cultural properties. Although generic language always led children to believe that properties were nonaccidental, young children (4 or 5 y) in this sample inferred the nonaccidental structure was socialization. Older children (6 to 9 y) flexibly interpreted the category as essential or socialized depending on the type of properties that generalized. We uncovered early-emerging flexibility and no privileged link between kinds and essences.

scholarly journals The unintended consequences of the things we say: What generics communicate to children about unmentioned categories

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey Moty ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Social Stereotypes ◽  
Social Kinds ◽  
Generic Language ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

Adults frequently use generic language (e.g., "Boys play sports”) to communicate information about social kinds to children. Whereas previous research speaks to how children often interpret information about the kinds described by generics, less is known about what generics may implicitly communicate about unmentioned kinds (e.g., the possibility that “Boys play sports” implies that girls do not). Studies 1 (N = 287 4- to 6-year-olds, 56 adults) and 2 (N = 84 4- to 6-year-olds) found that children as young as 4.5 years draw inferences about unmentioned categories from generic claims (but not matched specific statements)—and that the tendency to make these inferences strengthens with age. Study 3 (N = 181 4- to 7.25-year-olds, 65 adults) provides evidence that pragmatic reasoning serves as a mechanism underlying these inferences. This paper concludes by discussing the role that generic language may play in inadvertently communicating social stereotypes to young children.

scholarly journals Categories convey prescriptive information across domains and development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Foster-Hanson ◽  
Steven Roberts ◽  
Susan A. Gelman ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
General Feature ◽  
Category Member ◽  
Category Structure ◽  
Social Reasoning ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Kinds

Young children display a pervasive bias to assume that what they observe in the world reflects how things are supposed to be. The present studies examined the nature of this bias, by testing whether it reflects a particular form of social reasoning or a more general feature of category representations. Children ages 4-9 and adults (N = 747) evaluated instances of nonconformity among members of novel biological and social kinds. Children held prescriptive expectations for both animal and social categories—in both cases, they said it was wrong for a category member to engage in category-atypical behavior. These prescriptive judgments about categories depended on the extent to which people saw the pictured individual examples as representative of coherent categories. Thus, early prescriptive judgments appear to rely on the interplay between general conceptual biases and domain-specific beliefs about category structure.

An Experimental Study of Special Leaving Group Behavior in the Reaction of Arylidenebarbituric Acids with Carbon Nucleophiles

Heterocycles ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enayatollah Sheikhhosseini ◽  
Mohammad A. Bigdeli ◽  
Azizollah Habibi ◽  
Saeed Balalaie
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Carbon Nucleophiles ◽  
Leaving Group

scholarly journals Nostalgia after the communist regime in Romania

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Dan Teșculă
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Subject ◽  
To Come ◽  
Phd Thesis

The present paper focuses on the nostalgia after the communist regime in Romania. This small study is a general overview of the progress I have made during the period between march and august on my PhD thesis regarding the nostalgia after the communist regime in Romania. The research methodology used is somewhat new in the field of conteporary history research. The quasi-experimental study was used in order to see if there are significant differences in the way the well-defined social categories perceive the feeling of nostalgia after communism. The period we spanned in this study is the so-called Ceaușescu epoch for wich we have had the most material to work with. From a historiographycal stand-point, the subject is very new, up until now the studies that have appeared during the past years, take the form of articles published in scientific reviews. More studies will eventually show up in the years to come. During this study we have identified small differences between the groups, that posess almost no relevance to our hypothesis. Theoretically educated people know how to present their memories which later have served as an explanation as to why they are not nostalgic. Surprisingly the working class has almost the same perception as the educated people (the intellectuals).

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