Formal Explanations Shape Children's Representations of Animal Kinds and Social Groups

Autor/inn/en	Muradoglu, Melis; Marchak, Kristan A.; Gelman, Susan A.; Cimpian, Andrei
Titel	Formal Explanations Shape Children's Representations of Animal Kinds and Social Groups
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 58 (2022) 12, S.2322-2335 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Muradoglu, Melis) ORCID (Marchak, Kristan A.) ORCID (Gelman, Susan A.) ORCID (Cimpian, Andrei)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0001447
Schlagwörter	Animals; Social Structure; Classification; Preschool Children; Individual Characteristics; Concept Formation; Childrens Attitudes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Animal; Tier; Tiere; Sozialstruktur; Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Personality characteristic; Personality traits; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung
Abstract	In certain domains, people represent some of an individual's properties (e.g., a tiger's ferocity), but not others (e.g., a tiger's being in the zoo), as stemming from the assumed "essence" of the individual's category. How do children identify which properties of an individual are essentialized and which are not? Here, we examine whether formal explanations--that is, explanations that appeal to category membership (e.g., "That's ferocious 'because it's a tiger'")--help children to identify which properties are essentialized. We investigated this question in two domains: animal kinds (Study 1) and social categories (specifically, gender; Studies 2 and 3). Across studies, we introduced children to novel behaviors and preferences of individuals using either a formal explanation or closely matched wording that did not express a formal explanation. To measure the extent to which children essentialized the novel properties, we assessed their inferences about the stability, innateness, and generalizability of these properties. In Study 1 (N = 104; 61 girls, 43 boys; predominantly White and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 5- and 6-year-old children to view novel properties of individual animals as more stable across time. In Studies 2 and 3 (total N = 163; 84 girls, 79 boys; predominantly White, Asian, and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 6-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, to view novel properties of individual girls and boys as more stable across contexts. These studies highlight an important mechanism by which formal explanations guide conceptual development. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01