title: In genes we trust: the biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition.
abstract: Three studies analyzed the biological component of psychological essentialism (laypeople's belief that social categories have an underlying nature/natural foundation) as it pertains to mechanisms of motivated social cognition. A new scale assessing the belief in genetic determinism is introduced as a measure of the biological component of essentialism. Results speak to the reliability and validity of the scale and show that essentialist beliefs are associated with basic social-cognitive motives and are also related to processes of stereotyping and prejudice. An experimental study found that rendering essentialist information salient elicits increased levels of prejudice and in-group bias, particularly in persons holding chronic essentialist beliefs.
authors.affiliation: University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany. jkeller@uni-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D033141:Genetic Determinism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011287:Prejudice; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping