TY - JOUR
T1 - Making Boundaries Great Again
T2 - Essentialism and Support for Boundary-Enhancing Initiatives
AU - Roberts, Steven O.
AU - Ho, Arnold K.
AU - Rhodes, Marjorie
AU - Gelman, Susan A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation Graduate Student Research Fellowships awarded to Steven O. Roberts.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © 2017 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Psychological essentialism entails a focus on category boundaries (e.g., categorizing people as men or women) and an increase in the conceptual distance between those boundaries (e.g., accentuating the differences between men and women). Across eight studies, we demonstrate that essentialism additionally entails an increase in support for boundary-enhancing legislation, policies, and social services, and that it does so under conditions that disadvantage social groups, as well as conditions that benefit them. First, individual differences in essentialism were associated with support for legislation mandating that transgender people use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex, and with support for the boundary-enhancing policies of the 2016 then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee (i.e., Donald Trump). Second, essentialism was associated with support for same-gender classrooms designed to promote student learning, as well as support for services designed to benefit LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) individuals. These findings demonstrate the boundary-enhancing implications of essentialism and their social significance.
AB - Psychological essentialism entails a focus on category boundaries (e.g., categorizing people as men or women) and an increase in the conceptual distance between those boundaries (e.g., accentuating the differences between men and women). Across eight studies, we demonstrate that essentialism additionally entails an increase in support for boundary-enhancing legislation, policies, and social services, and that it does so under conditions that disadvantage social groups, as well as conditions that benefit them. First, individual differences in essentialism were associated with support for legislation mandating that transgender people use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex, and with support for the boundary-enhancing policies of the 2016 then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee (i.e., Donald Trump). Second, essentialism was associated with support for same-gender classrooms designed to promote student learning, as well as support for services designed to benefit LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) individuals. These findings demonstrate the boundary-enhancing implications of essentialism and their social significance.
KW - Donald Trump
KW - boundary enhancement
KW - essentialism
KW - social categories
KW - transgender
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U2 - 10.1177/0146167217724801
DO - 10.1177/0146167217724801
M3 - Article
C2 - 28914160
AN - SCOPUS:85032696778
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 43
SP - 1643
EP - 1658
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 12
ER -