TY - JOUR
T1 - How Culture Shapes Social Categorization and Inductive Reasoning:A Developmental Comparison between the United States and China
AU - Xu, Yian
AU - Burns, Megan
AU - Wen, Fangfang
AU - Thor, Emily Dahlgaard
AU - Zuo, Bin
AU - Coley, John D.
AU - Rhodes, Marjorie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Social categories allow us to make sense of the social world and generate predictions about novel encounters. Yet, how people use particular social categories varies by culture. The current study examined how social categorization varies across traditionally individualistic and collectivistic societies among young children and adults. Using a triad picture task, American and Chinese children and adults made categorization and inductive reasoning judgments based on categories perceived as biological (e.g., age and gender) or categories perceived as social (e.g., occupation). The developmental trajectory of social categorization varied by culture: American adults were more likely than American children to categorize based on biologically-relevant categories, whereas Chinese adults were more likely than Chinese children to do so based on socially-relevant categories. Chinese participants also relied on socially-relevant categories (occupation) to make predictions about physical properties more than American participants. The current findings suggest a broad cultural influence on the perceived meanings and structures of certain biologically- and socially-based categories.
AB - Social categories allow us to make sense of the social world and generate predictions about novel encounters. Yet, how people use particular social categories varies by culture. The current study examined how social categorization varies across traditionally individualistic and collectivistic societies among young children and adults. Using a triad picture task, American and Chinese children and adults made categorization and inductive reasoning judgments based on categories perceived as biological (e.g., age and gender) or categories perceived as social (e.g., occupation). The developmental trajectory of social categorization varied by culture: American adults were more likely than American children to categorize based on biologically-relevant categories, whereas Chinese adults were more likely than Chinese children to do so based on socially-relevant categories. Chinese participants also relied on socially-relevant categories (occupation) to make predictions about physical properties more than American participants. The current findings suggest a broad cultural influence on the perceived meanings and structures of certain biologically- and socially-based categories.
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U2 - 10.1080/15248372.2022.2085708
DO - 10.1080/15248372.2022.2085708
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132713400
SN - 1524-8372
VL - 23
SP - 644
EP - 659
JO - Journal of Cognition and Development
JF - Journal of Cognition and Development
IS - 5
ER -