The Development of Social Essentialism

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As early as four years of age, children begin to believe that people who share membership in an ethnic or gender group are similar to each other, and different from members of other groups, in many non-obvious and fundamental ways. For instance, children think that if one girl dislikes math, other girls (but not boys) will dislike it too, or that if one member of an ethic group commits a crime, other members of the group may do so as well. This type of thinking is known as essentialism. Essentialist beliefs about social groups represent the core of stereotyping and prejudice. The objective of this research project is to examine how essentialist beliefs develop in young children and how we might be able to prevent their formation. In particular, these studies examine the role of language that describes abstract categories (e.g., girls play with dolls)in the cultural transmission of essentialist beliefs. These studies test the hypotheses that parents produce this type of language when talking about groups for which they hold essentialist beliefs, and that hearing this type of language leads children to develop essentialist beliefs about those groups as well. In this way, parents may unknowingly transmit essentialist beliefs to their children.If these hypotheses are supported, this research will yield concrete implications for how to reduce prejudice by reducing children's exposure to certain forms of language. For example, educating parents on the consequences of using language that describes abstract categories, and encouraging them to reduce the use of such sentences, could lead to a reduction in the next generation's tendencies towards prejudice. Grounding these changes in mechanisms that have been empirically shown to influence the formation of essentialist beliefs could lead to more effective efforts to reduce societal prejudice.