Abstract
The effect of subjective essentialism on lay theories of groups differences: This research examines the impact of essentialism on people's lay theories regarding group differences. Essentialism is the belief that an underlying essence lies at the heart of every social category (Medin, 1989). Belgians (N= 105) and Chileans (N= 223) completed a questionnaire comprising an adapted version of Martin and Parker's Explanations for Group Differences Scale (1995) and our Essentialism Scale. In Study 1, the more people believed in essentialism, the more they used explanatory factors in general and biological factors in particular to account for intergroup differences. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings. In particular, people scoring higher on the essentialism scale used more explanatory factors, and noticeably biological ones, when addressing intergroup but not intragroup differences. These results are compatible with a view of subjective essentialism as a propensity to freeze existing intergroup relations.
