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Is psychological essentialism an inherent feature of human cognition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Christopher Y. Olivola  and
Edouard Machery
Christopher Y. Olivola
Affiliation:
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA [email protected]://sites.google.com/site/chrisolivola/
Edouard Machery
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. [email protected]://www.pitt.edu/~machery/
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Abstract

Recent evidence shows that psychological essentialism is neither a universal nor stable feature of human cognition. The extent to which people report essentialist intuitions varies enormously across cultures and education levels, and is also influenced by subtle, normatively irrelevant contextual manipulations. These results challenge the notion that the human mind is “fitted” with a built-in inherence heuristic that produces essentialist intuitions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , October 2014 , pp. 499
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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