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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior pp 1–7Cite as

Essentialism

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What Is Psychological Essentialism?

Much of human cognition is characterized by psychological essentialism (Gelman 2003). In its broadest form, psychological essentialism is a conceptual framework that defines our naïve-metaphysical perspective on the structure of objects and categories. Its basis is the distinction between two kinds of properties: Objects of a given kind can have many accidental properties: These are properties that the object in question can but need not have, and in respect to which it can change without becoming a different kind of object. Essentialproperties (Essential properties are sometimes called “defining,” and accidental ones “characteristic.” Research in cognitive development, for example, suggests that children’s lexical semantics undergo a “characteristic-to-defining” shift in the preschool years such that children initially base word meaning on superficial features associated with prototypical instances of a given kind, and only later focus on the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Göttingen, Gottingen, Germany

    Hannes Rakoczy

  2. Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Brugg, Switzerland

    Trix Cacchione

Authors
  1. Hannes Rakoczy
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  2. Trix Cacchione
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Correspondence to Hannes Rakoczy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, USA

    Sarah Dunphy-Lelii

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Rakoczy, H., Cacchione, T. (2017). Essentialism. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1569-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1569-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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