Biological Essentialism Correlates with (But Doesn’t Cause?) Intergroup Bias

Abstract

People with biological essentialist beliefs about social groups also tend to endorse biased beliefs about individuals in those groups, including stereotypes, prejudices, and intensified emphasis on the group. These correlations could be due to biological essentialism causing bias, and some experimental studies support this causal direction. Given this prior work, we expected to find that biological essentialism would lead to increased bias compared to a control condition and set out to extend this prior work in a new direction (regarding “value-based” essentialism). But although the manipulation affected essentialist beliefs and essentialist beliefs were correlated with stereotyping (Studies 1, 2a, and 2b), prejudice (Studies 2a), and group emphasis (Study 3), there was no evidence that biological essentialism caused these outcomes. Given these findings, our initial research question became moot, and the present work focuses on reexamining the relationship between essentialism and bias. We discuss possible moderators, reverse causation, and third variables.

She/He, Whe/Ble: Lay Beliefs About Encoding Social Identities in Pronouns

“…Chen & Ratliff, 2018), more positive attitudes toward other groups (e.g., gay people; Haslam & Levy, 2006), and less blame for moral wrongdoing (e.g., Bailey et al, 2021). These relationships can be quite complex, as highlighted in recent work by Bailey and Knobe (2023), Mandalaywala (2020), and Peretz-Lange (2021. But most relevant for our purposes, essentialism has been shown to shape language use and vice versa (e.g., Ritchie, 2021).…”

Responsible Dissemination in Sexual Orientation Research: The Case of the AI “Gaydar”

“…And indeed, Oldham and Kasser (1999) found that reading a vignette that focuses on the genetic and neuroendocrine causes of homosexuality, led to less homonegativity in students. Other studies, however, did not find this influence of etiological beliefs on homonegativity, and suggest that causality might go in the opposite direction (Bailey and Knobe 2021): People often seem to rationalize their pre-existing attitudes by endorsing certain statements about the nature and origin of homosexuality. Moreover, even if it would turn out that findings about the genetic or endocrine roots of homosexuality would be instrumental in combatting homonegativity, this reasoning could itself be branded as a subtle form of homonegativity.…”

Psychological essentialism and the structure of concepts

“…et al (2010), Yzerbyt, Corneille, andEstrada (2001), Pauker et al (2016), andGallagher andBodenhausen (2021) for findings that support a positive relationship between essentialism and stereotyping. See Ritchie and Knobe (2020) and Bailey and Knobe (2021) for alternative views. The latter study present evidence that (biological) essentialism is correlated, but doesn't cause, stereotyping and prejudice.…”