Does It Matter How We Speak About Social Kinds? A Large, Preregistered, Online Experimental Study of How Language Shapes the Development of Essentialist Beliefs

Leshin, Rachel; Leslie, Sarah‐Jane; Rhodes, Marjorie

doi:10.1111/cdev.13527

Cited by 37 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…More broadly, the inconsistencies in our data are in line with recent work that suggests nonuniform effects of language on components of essentialist beliefs (e.g., Leshin et al, 2021; Noyes & Keil, 2020). These nonuniformities likely arise from a complex interaction between aspects of the language being used, aspects of the measures being used (and the corresponding components of essentialist thought), and children’s prior knowledge about the categories and properties being discussed.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Formal explanations shape children’s representations of animal kinds and social groups.

Muradoglu¹,

Marchak²,

Gelman³

et al. 2022

Developmental Psychology

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In certain domains, people represent some of an individual’s properties (e.g., a tiger’s ferocity), but not others (e.g., a tiger’s being in the zoo), as stemming from the assumed “essence” of the individual’s category. How do children identify which properties of an individual are essentialized and which are not? Here, we examine whether formal explanations—that is, explanations that appeal to category membership (e.g., “That’s ferocious because it’s a tiger”)—help children to identify which properties are essentialized. We investigated this question in two domains: animal kinds (Study 1) and social categories (specifically, gender; Studies 2 and 3). Across studies, we introduced children to novel behaviors and preferences of individuals using either a formal explanation or closely matched wording that did not express a formal explanation. To measure the extent to which children essentialized the novel properties, we assessed their inferences about the stability, innateness, and generalizability of these properties. In Study 1 (N = 104; 61 girls, 43 boys; predominantly White and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 5- and 6-year-old children to view novel properties of individual animals as more stable across time. In Studies 2 and 3 (total N = 163; 84 girls, 79 boys; predominantly White, Asian, and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 6-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, to view novel properties of individual girls and boys as more stable across contexts. These studies highlight an important mechanism by which formal explanations guide conceptual development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Formal explanations shape children’s representations of animal kinds and social groups.

Muradoglu¹,

Marchak²,

Gelman³

et al. 2022

Developmental Psychology

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“…It would also be worthwhile to investigate whether the conceptual consequences of exposure to generics about individuals parallel those of exposure to generics about categories. For instance, hearing a series of generic statements about an unfamiliar social or animal category prompts people to “essentialize” it—to see it as a coherent, informative grouping that embodies a rich cluster of nonobvious properties emerging from an inherent causal source (e.g., Gelman et al, 2010; Leshin et al, 2021; Rhodes et al, 2012). By analogy, it is possible that hearing a series of generics about an individual would likewise serve to essentialize this individual—to create the impression that the individual embodies a range of other yet-to-be-discovered characteristics that emerge from an inherent causal source.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generics about categories and generics about individuals: Same phenomenon or different?

Bian¹,

Cimpian²

2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Language can be used to express broad, unquantified generalizations about both categories (e.g., "Dogs bark") and individuals (e.g., "Daisy barks"). Although these two classes of statements are commonly assumed to arise from the same linguistic phenomenon-genericity-the literature to date has not offered a direct experimental comparison of the conditions under which they are endorsed (i.e., their truth conditions). Here, we provide such a comparison by testing whether endorsement of generics about categories and individuals is affected in similar ways by the conceptual content of the properties being generalized. Consistent with this possibility, six experiments (N = 1,265) and an internal meta-analysis reveal that endorsement of generics about both categories and individuals is facilitated when the properties being generalized are distinctive or dangerous, suggesting systematic similarities in the truth conditions of generics about categories and individuals. The experiments also suggest that these facilitative effects do not extend to statements with overt quantification (all/always and some/sometimes). Thus, the present studies provide the first empirical evidence indicating that generics about categories and generics about individuals represent a unified phenomenon. These findings contribute to theories of genericity and inform our understanding of how language shapes social interactions.

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“…A switch to remote data collection has been particularly challenging for infant studies that mostly rely on in-person observation methods ( Rhodes et al, 2020 ). Initiatives to move developmental science online started to increase rapidly during the last year ( Leshin et al, 2020 ; Sheskin et al, 2020 ), building on existing moderated ( Sheskin and Keil, 2018 ) and unmoderated remote research attempts and experiment platforms ( Scott and Schulz, 2017 ; Scott et al, 2017 ; Semmelmann et al, 2017 ; Tran et al, 2017 ) in the field. New tools and platforms for moderated and unmoderated online studies targeting developmental populations have also recently emerged ( Rhodes et al, 2020 ; Lo et al, 2021 ; Oliver and Pike, 2021 ; Su and Ceci, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Online Webcam- and Laboratory-Based Eye-Tracking for the Assessment of Infants’ Audio-Visual Synchrony Perception

et al. 2022

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Online data collection with infants raises special opportunities and challenges for developmental research. One of the most prevalent methods in infancy research is eye-tracking, which has been widely applied in laboratory settings to assess cognitive development. Technological advances now allow conducting eye-tracking online with various populations, including infants. However, the accuracy and reliability of online infant eye-tracking remain to be comprehensively evaluated. No research to date has directly compared webcam-based and in-lab eye-tracking data from infants, similarly to data from adults. The present study provides a direct comparison of in-lab and webcam-based eye-tracking data from infants who completed an identical looking time paradigm in two different settings (in the laboratory or online at home). We assessed 4-6-month-old infants (n = 38) in an eye-tracking task that measured the detection of audio-visual asynchrony. Webcam-based and in-lab eye-tracking data were compared on eye-tracking and video data quality, infants’ viewing behavior, and experimental effects. Results revealed no differences between the in-lab and online setting in the frequency of technical issues and participant attrition rates. Video data quality was comparable between settings in terms of completeness and brightness, despite lower frame rate and resolution online. Eye-tracking data quality was higher in the laboratory than online, except in case of relative sample loss. Gaze data quantity recorded by eye-tracking was significantly lower than by video in both settings. In valid trials, eye-tracking and video data captured infants’ viewing behavior uniformly, irrespective of setting. Despite the common challenges of infant eye-tracking across experimental settings, our results point toward the necessity to further improve the precision of online eye-tracking with infants. Taken together, online eye-tracking is a promising tool to assess infants’ gaze behavior but requires careful data quality control. The demographic composition of both samples differed from the generic population on caregiver education: our samples comprised caregivers with higher-than-average education levels, challenging the notion that online studies will per se reach more diverse populations.

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Does It Matter How We Speak About Social Kinds? A Large, Preregistered, Online Experimental Study of How Language Shapes the Development of Essentialist Beliefs

Cited by 37 publications

References 90 publications

Formal explanations shape children’s representations of animal kinds and social groups.

Formal explanations shape children’s representations of animal kinds and social groups.

Generics about categories and generics about individuals: Same phenomenon or different?

Comparing Online Webcam- and Laboratory-Based Eye-Tracking for the Assessment of Infants’ Audio-Visual Synchrony Perception

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