Social essentialism in the United States and China: How social and cognitive factors predict within- and cross-cultural variation in essentialist thinking.

ABSTRACT: People intuitively view some social groups (such as Black people, Muslims, and women) as having biological underpinnings and discrete boundaries. Essentialist beliefs about social groups shape how people view themselves and others, leading to a number of negative social consequences. Whereas previous research has demonstrated variations in social essentialism within some Western societies, less is known about how social essentialism manifests in East Asian cultures that have well-documented differences in social values and cognitive styles from Western cultures. The current research investigated cultural variations in social essentialist thinking in the United States and China to reveal how cultural ideologies and social belief systems shape people's basic representations of the social wor

SUBMITTER: Xu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9007264 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature