The (Biological or Cultural) Essence of Essentialism: Implications for Policy Support among Dominant and Subordinated Groups.

ABSTRACT: Most research links (racial) essentialism to negative intergroup outcomes. We propose that this conclusion reflects both a narrow conceptual focus on biological/genetic essence and a narrow research focus from the perspective of racially dominant groups. We distinguished between beliefs in biological and cultural essences, and we investigated the implications of this distinction for support of social justice policies (e.g., affirmative action) among people with dominant (White) and subordinated (e.g., Black, Latino) racial identities in the United States. Whereas, endorsement of biological essentialism may have similarly negative implications for social justice policies across racial categories, we investigated the hypothesis that endorsement of cultural essentialism would have different i

SUBMITTER: Soylu Yalcinkaya N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5447748 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature