I. Introduction

Social essentialism entails the belief that certain social categories (e.g., gender, race) mark fundamentally distinct kinds of people. Essentialist beliefs have pernicious consequences, supporting social stereotyping and contributing to prejudice. How does social essentialism develop? In the studies reported here, we tested the hypothesis that generic language facilitates the cultural transmission of social essentialism. Two studies found that hearing generic language about a novel social category diverse for race, ethnicity, age, and sex led 4-y-olds and adults to develop essentialist beliefs about that social category. A third study documented that experimentally inducing parents to hold essentialist beliefs about a novel social category led them to produce more generic language when discussing the category with their children. Thus, generic language facilitates the transmission of essentialist beliefs about social categories from parents to children.

show abstract

Trajectories of Early Television Contact in Japan: Relationship with Preschoolers’ Externalizing Problems

Sugawara

Matsumoto

Murohashi

et al. 2015

Journal of Children and Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

334 Leonard St

Brooklyn, NY 11211

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

I. Introduction

Cited by 3 publications

References 79 publications

Gay and Heterosexual Single Father Families Created by Surrogacy: Father–Child Relationships, Parenting Quality, and Children’s Psychological Adjustment

Gay and Heterosexual Single Father Families Created by Surrogacy: Father–Child Relationships, Parenting Quality, and Children’s Psychological Adjustment

Cultural transmission of social essentialism

Trajectories of Early Television Contact in Japan: Relationship with Preschoolers’ Externalizing Problems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About