Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:10:56.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The essence of essentialism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Nick Haslam*
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia. [email protected]://www.psych.unimelb.edu.au/people/nick-haslam

Abstract

As an account of the cognitive processes that support psychological essentialism, the inherence heuristic clarifies the basis of individual differences in essentialist thinking, and how they are associated with prejudice. It also illuminates the contextual variability of social essentialism, and where its conceptual boundaries should be drawn.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Haslam, N. & Levy, S. R. (2006) Essentialist beliefs about homosexuality: Structure and implications for prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 32:471–85. doi:10.1177/0146167205276516.Google Scholar
Haslam, N., Rothschild, L. & Ernst, D. (2000) Essentialist beliefs about social categories. British Journal of Social Psychology 39:113–27. doi:10.1348/014466600164363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haslam, N., Rothschild, L. & Ernst, D. (2002) Are essentialist beliefs associated with prejudice? British Journal of Social Psychology 41:87100. doi:10.1348/014466602165072.Google Scholar
Hodson, G. & Busseri, M. A. (2012) Bright minds and dark attitudes: Lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice through right-wing ideology and low intergroup contact. Psychological Science 23:187–95.Google Scholar
Morton, T. A., Postmes, T., Haslam, S. A. & Hornsey, M. J. (2009) Is there anything essential about essentialism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96:653–64.Google Scholar
Rangel, U. & Keller, J. (2011) Essentialism goes social: Belief in social determinism as a component of psychological essentialism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100:1056–78.Google Scholar
Roets, A. & Van Hiel, A. (2011) The role of need for closure in essentialist entitativity beliefs and prejudice: An epistemic needs approach to racial categorization. British Journal of Social Psychology 50:5273.Google Scholar
Tadmor, C. T., Chao, M. M., Hong, Y-y. & Polzer, J. T. (2013) Not just for stereotyping any more: Racial essentialism reduces domain-general creativity. Psychological Science 24:99105.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, M. (2003) Discourses about ethnic group (de-)essentialism: Oppressive and progressive aspects. British Journal of Social Psychology 42:371–91.Google Scholar