Essentialist Beliefs about Personality and Their Implications

Abstract

Two studies examine implicit theories about the nature of personality characteristics, asking whether they are understood as underlying essences. Consistent with the hypothesis, essentialist beliefs about personality formed a coherent and replicable set. Personality characteristics differed systematically in the extent to which they were judged to be discrete, biologically based, immutable, informative, consistent across situations, and deeply inherent within the person. In Study 1, the extent to which characteristics were essentialized was positively associated with their perceived desirability, prevalence, and emotionality. In Study 2, essentialized characteristics were judged to be particularly important for defining people's identity, for forming impressions of people, and for communicating about a third person. The findings indicate that people understand some personality attributes in an essentialist fashion, that these attributes are taken to be valued elements of a shared human nature, and that they are particularly central to social identity and judgment.

Preferences for Enhancement Pharmaceuticals: The Reluctance to Enhance Fundamental Traits

“…Of the three self-identity rating instructions, the inherence measure was used by Haslam et al (2004), and we developed the fundamental and authenticity measures. Participants receiving the inherence instructions were shown a randomly ordered list of the 19 traits.…”

“…Participants receiving the inherence instructions were shown a randomly ordered list of the 19 traits. For each trait, they indicated their agreement on a 7-point scale (1 = "strongly disagree" and 7 = "strongly agree") with the statement: "This characteristic is a deeply-rooted aspect JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH of a person: it lies deep within the person and underlies the person's behavior" (Haslam et al 2004).…”

“…Especially in Western cultures, the belief in a fundamental, essential self is widespread (Markus and Kitayama 1991). People believe that particular stable traits explain much of a person's behavior and that these traits form a person's essential self or soul (Chen, Boucher, and Tapias 2006;Dweck 1999;Haslam, Bastian, and Bissett 2004;Markus 1977). Moreover, people are highly motivated to express their self-identities, often through consumption experiences (Aaker 1999;Belk 1988;Berger and Heath 2007;Celsi, Rose, and Leigh 1993;Shavitt, Lowrey, and Han 1992;Vazire and Gosling 2004).…”

Origins of the Belief in Good True Selves

“…Specifically, people rate personality traits that they deem central to a person's identity as more "innate" and stable over time relative to other traits [6]. People also believe that there is a boundary between the self-essence and other aspects of the self, since they spontaneously describe the true self as a physical entity "inside" or "beneath the surface" (of the extrinsic self) that can "grow", "expand" or be "expressed" [7].…”

Estudo da validação das escalas de crenças sobre a natureza da homossexualidade e de preconceito contra homossexuais

“…O essencialismo é um processo resultante da crença de que cada categoria de objectos possui um conjunto fixo de características que definem a natureza mais profunda dos elementos das categorias (Medin & Ortony, 1989) e servem para justificar a desigualdade social (Yzerbyt, Rocher, & Schadron, 1997). A investigação neste domínio tem analisado a estrutura das crenças essencialistas (e.g., Bastian & Haslam, 2006;Haslam, Bastian, & Bissett, 2004;Hegarty & Pratto, 2001) e o seu papel nas atitudes intergrupais (e.g., Haslam & Levy, 2006;Leyens et al, 2000). Em síntese, estes estudos mostram que as teorias implícitas que as pessoas têm sobre a natureza dos grupos sociais desempenham um papel importante no preconceito.…”