Dhesi, Japinder

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LSE Research Online

Made to Stick? The Role of Essentialism in Naturalizing Social Status Hierarchies Japinder Dhesi(j.dhesi@lse.ac.uk)• Introduction• Representations of many social categories are characterized by essentialist thinking.• According to cognitive psychologists psychological essentialism is a cognitive heuristic leading people to assume category members share a deep underlying causal essence which is responsible for the perceptual and behavioural properties of category members (Medin & Ortony, 1989).• Previous research has shown a correlation between social categories that are essentialized and their social status ratings (Haslam et al., 2000).• However, previous studies have not manipulated social status therefore the causal direction of the relationship remains unclear. MethodParticipants: 139 Princeton university undergraduatesExperiment Overview:• Participants completed a perceptual styles test (dot-estimation) in pairs or alone and received predetermined feedback.• 3 experimental conditions:(1) Different style condition  (1 over-estimator & 1 under-estimator)(2) Same style condition (both over or under-estimators.(3) Alone condition (over or under-estimator).• Status manipulation: participants assigned to high status role (boss) or low status role (subordinate) for upcoming task.• Dependent measure: participants rated category perceptual style on 8 attributes tapping 2 dimensions of essentialism (naturalness & entitativity) on 5 point scale.Results• Factor analysis revealed 2 factors corresponding to 2 dimensions of essentialism.• Naturalism scale: participants in different style condition (where perceptual style correlates with status) rated category perceptual style as significantly more natural than in the alone or same style conditions (F (1, 119) = 4.71, p < .05).• Entitativity scale: no differences in scores across experimental conditions.11.522.533.544.5Naturalness EntitativityEssentialist Beliefs MeasuresMean Rating (1-5)AloneDifferent-StyleSame-StyleDiscussion• Findings suggest people naturalize the category perceptual style when it correlates with social status.• Social status differences may well trigger beliefs in the naturalness of associated social categories. • Psychological essentialism appears to facilitate the naturalization of status differences. • This research highlights the importance of considering the role of cognitive factors in the stabilization of unequal social relations.Future Directions • What triggers beliefs in the entitativity of social categories?

Made to stick? The role of essentialism in naturalizing social status hierarchies

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