Marjorie Rhodes (New York University)

Title

Language, Concepts, and Social Stereotypes

Abstract

In this talk, I will describe how commonplace features of language can contribute to the development of social stereotypes in sometimes surprising and counterintuitive ways. Drawing on natural language studies, lab experiments, and longitudinal studies, I will discuss how generic descriptions of social categories (e.g., “boys play baseball”, “girls wear pink”) contribute to the development of stereotyping in ways that go beyond the content they describe (e.g., beyond beliefs about sports or color preferences) and can do so even when they describe counter-stereotypic content. To explain these findings, I present a theoretical account of how children understand generic references to categories in the context of communication with knowledgeable speakers. These findings have implications for how to talk about social categories in ways that might reduce the development of stereotyping and other problematic social phenomena.

Zoom meeting ID: 614 8076 0079

Zoom passcode: CEN23