Psychological Development and Education ›› 2020, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (5): 633-640.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2020.05.15

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Children's Racial/Ethnic Essentialism and its Contributing Factors

LI Zhanxing1, NI Xiaoli1, NIU Gengfeng1, ZHU Liqi2,3   

  1. 1. Institute of Social Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049;
    2. CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101;
    3. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Published:2020-09-12

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Abstract: Psychological essentialism regards category members as determined by the common essence, which corresponds to some apparently immutable properties. Among them, racial/ethnic essentialism is a kind of psychological essentialism, which is of great significance to understand children's cognition of race/ethnicity. Individuals who hold racial/ethnic essentialism regard race/ethnicity as heritably unchanged, having strong inductive potential, and label of race/ethnicity being objective. However, children's racial/ethnic essentialism basing on different features have different developmental trajectory. Use of generic language, social cultural contexts and the group status all will impact children's belief of racial/ethnic essentialism, which suggests we may weaken children's belief of racial/ethnic essentialism by decreasing usage of generic language and promoting national integration. To compare the developmental trajectory between children's racial/ethnic essentialism and natural essentialism may help us understand the cross-domain consistency in category learning for children. Some intervention studies may be needed to ensure the development of racial/ethnic essentialism is appropriate.

Key words: children, psychological essentialism, genetic stability, inductive potential, generic language

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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