The inherence heuristic: a basis for psychological essentialism?
Cimpian & Salomon (C&S) provide evidence that psychological essentialism rests on a domain-general attention to inherent causes. We suggest that the inherence heuristic may itself be undergirded by a more foundational cognitive bias, namely, a realist assumption about environmental regularities. In contrast, when considering specific representations, people may be more likely to activate attention to non-inherent, contingent, and historical links.
Psychology Department,University of Michigan,Ann Arbor,MI 48109-1043gelman@umich.eduhttp://sitemaker.umich.edu/gelman.lab/home.
Susan A
SA
Gelman
Psychology Department,Otterbein University,Westerville,OH 43081-2004.mmeyer@otterbein.edu.
Meredith
M
Meyer
D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008128:Logic