In search of the elusive essence: Heuristics in the essentialization process

Abstract

Drawing mostly from the field of cognitive psychology we treat essentialism as a bias under which social categories are perceived as having an underlying “hidden” cause feature.  Study 1 shows how social categories can be separated into essentialized and nonessentialized according to inability to explain the core characteristics of the categories.  Study 2 provides a link between inability to explain the core characteristics of the category and a general illusory correlational procedure that links the category to its characteristics.  Study 3 links essentialism to a justice heuristic that leads to the naturalization of differences among categories.  Based on the findings, an account of the cognitive process of essentialization is discussed, as a process that arguably starts from an inability to explain core characteristics of a category, builds on illusory correlation between the category and its characteristics and establishes the naturalization of differences among categories.