Perceived danger associated with a property modulates cross category generalization.

ABSTRACT: Identifying projectable predicates is a key issue in understanding inductive inference. It is proposed that looking into the evolutionary psychology literature for adaptive properties may be one useful approach. One hypothesis that emerges from this literature is that properties that signal danger or harm should be more salient than properties that do not. Two studies are carried out to test this hypothesis. In study 1 participants were presented with a scenario involving the discovery of novel animals, for which there was incomplete information. Three types of properties (a harmful property, a neutral property, a beneficial property) were associated with animals in one (base) category and participants were asked to indicate strength of generalization of the property to a target within the

SUBMITTER: Liang P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9666573 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature