What is psychological essentialism?
- What something looks like doesn’t always equates to what it is
- Certain expectations to something that is inherently part of what it is
- The features we don’t see don’t capture what we expect/what we think
- Belief to some quality, inborn, unchanging that is the essence; which is responsible for
the development of the features of the creature
- We put them and think that there is something about them
- Determines the identity of that thing depending on the categories you put them
- The way you describe things can also affect the way they think about it
- The framing suggests an essence
- The way you frame these results can influence the way people think about the essence
What is genetic essentialism?
- Discrete differences between categories and natural if we identify genetic cause
- Naturalistic fallacy: tendency to think that it is good because it is natural even though it is
not; these things cannot change and are innate
- When is it reasonable?
- When it arises from a variation in few or one gene
- There are traits that can tell someone about their underlying essence
- Phenotype: physical characteristics of a person
- Genotype: a genetic makeup or sets of genes of an individual
What is race?
- A concept and not based on genetics alone
- These characteristics that are visible can be influenced by and tracked by inheritance
- Race also relates to ancestral background
- There are observable traits that people tend to think
- There are also differences that might lead to race but not wholly dependent on
genes
- It is a population level effect
Traits
- Affected by 3 sources:
- Genes
- Environment
- Genes x environment
Heritability
- Talking about populations and not individuals because population evolves
- About what causes those differences within a population
- The more variable the environment the smaller the fraction of it is due to genes
- What something looks like doesn’t always equates to what it is
- Certain expectations to something that is inherently part of what it is
- The features we don’t see don’t capture what we expect/what we think
- Belief to some quality, inborn, unchanging that is the essence; which is responsible for
the development of the features of the creature
- We put them and think that there is something about them
- Determines the identity of that thing depending on the categories you put them
- The way you describe things can also affect the way they think about it
- The framing suggests an essence
- The way you frame these results can influence the way people think about the essence
What is genetic essentialism?
- Discrete differences between categories and natural if we identify genetic cause
- Naturalistic fallacy: tendency to think that it is good because it is natural even though it is
not; these things cannot change and are innate
- When is it reasonable?
- When it arises from a variation in few or one gene
- There are traits that can tell someone about their underlying essence
- Phenotype: physical characteristics of a person
- Genotype: a genetic makeup or sets of genes of an individual
What is race?
- A concept and not based on genetics alone
- These characteristics that are visible can be influenced by and tracked by inheritance
- Race also relates to ancestral background
- There are observable traits that people tend to think
- There are also differences that might lead to race but not wholly dependent on
genes
- It is a population level effect
Traits
- Affected by 3 sources:
- Genes
- Environment
- Genes x environment
Heritability
- Talking about populations and not individuals because population evolves
- About what causes those differences within a population
- The more variable the environment the smaller the fraction of it is due to genes
