Essentialist beliefs about sexuality-related categories

  1. Delgado Acosta, Elena
  2. Betancor Rodríguez, Verónica
  3. Rodríguez Pérez, Armando
Revue:
International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social

ISSN: 0213-4748,  1579-3680

Année de publication: 2016

Volumen: 31

Número: 1

Pages: 1-28

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1080/02134748.2015.1101311 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

D'autres publications dans: International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social

Résumé

People form essentialist beliefs about social categories as a strategy to organize their world and to make sense of the similarities and differences between different categories. This research examines four dimensions of essentialist thinking (biological basis, immutability, clarity of discreteness and informativeness) across different sexuality-related categories. Specifically, the categories of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, paedophiles, rapists and prostitutes were studied. Results show that essentialist beliefs of the six categories vary across dimensions and that essentialist dimensions function independently. Therefore, we discuss the relative usefulness of taking a global measurement as opposed to analysing the dimensions of essentialism separately

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