Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 24, Issue 6, Pages 999-1006Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0956797612466267
Keywords
social categorization; cognitive development; intuitive theories; social cognition
Categories
Funding
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie [1226942] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Social categorization is an early-developing feature of human social cognition, yet the role that social categories play in children's understanding of and predictions about human behavior has been unclear. In the studies reported here, we tested whether a foundational functional role of social categories is to mark people as intrinsically obligated to one another (e.g., obligated to protect rather than harm). In three studies, children (aged 3-9, N = 124) viewed only within-category harm as violating intrinsic obligations; in contrast, they viewed between-category harm as violating extrinsic obligations defined by explicit rules. These data indicate that children view social categories as marking patterns of intrinsic interpersonal obligations, suggesting that a key function of social categories is to support inferences about how people will relate to members of their own and other groups.
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