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The essence of essentialism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Nick Haslam*
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, Australia. nhaslam@unimelb.edu.auhttp://www.psych.unimelb.edu.au/people/nick-haslam

Abstract

As an account of the cognitive processes that support psychological essentialism, the inherence heuristic clarifies the basis of individual differences in essentialist thinking, and how they are associated with prejudice. It also illuminates the contextual variability of social essentialism, and where its conceptual boundaries should be drawn.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

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