Douglas Medin
Biographic Data
| ID | 159390 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Douglas Medin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Douglas |
| FAMILY NAME | Medin |
| SIGNATURE | MEDIN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208; and |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 194 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Categories and Taxonomies
Categories and taxonomies are critical components in uncovering how humans categorize and reason about the world. This entry reviews research in anthropology and psychology to provide cross‐disciplinary insights on conceptual organization of natural kinds. It also summarizes evidence on the use of categories in reasoning to support the proposition for a shift in orientation from a singular focus on taxonomic reasoning to viewing taxonomic and eco…
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Unfolding Futures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing for the Twenty-First Century
In the summer and autumn of 2016, American Indian people1 (re)entered American political consciousness in ways not seen since the takeover of the South Dakota village of Wounded Knee in 1973. Wounded Knee featured a seventy-one-day siege, the mobilization of the American military against Indian activists, and copious media reportage; and it came on the heels of the 1972 takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., the seizure and…
Systems of (non-)diversity
Emerging Trends in Culture and Concepts
The relation between culture and concepts has long been a fascinating topic for layperson and scientist alike. But often this topic has generated more heat than light—strong claims have been paired with weak evidence, and anecdotes have been more common than empirical data. More recently, however, interdisciplinary research programs have begun to demonstrate that interest in the relation between culture and concepts is not misplaced. In this essa…
Learning by Observing, Pitching in, and Being in Relations in the Natural World
Psychology out of the laboratory: The challenge of violent extremism
The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into confli…
Innovations in Culturally Based Science Education Through Partnerships and Community
The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature
An analysis of the cognitive consequences of diminished contact with nature examines the relationship between how people think about the natural world and how they act on it, and how these are affected by cultural differences. Surveys show that our growing concern over protecting the environment is accompanied by a diminishing sense of human contact with nature. Many people have little commonsense knowledge about nature—are unable, for example, t…
Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict
We report a series of experiments carried out with Palestinian and Israeli participants showing that violent opposition to compromise over issues considered sacred is ( i ) increased by offering material incentives to compromise but ( ii ) decreased when the adversary makes symbolic compromises over their own sacred values. These results demonstrate some of the unique properties of reasoning and decision-making over sacred values. We show that th…
Experience and Cultural Models Matter: Placing Firm Limits on Childhood Anthropocentrism
This paper builds on Hatano and Inagaki’s pioneering work on the role of experience and cultural models in children’s biological reasoning. We use a category-based induction task to consider how experience and cultural models shape rural and urban children’s patterns of biological reasoning. We discuss the implications of these findings for developmental theory and educational practice
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Psychology out of the laboratory: The challenge of violent extremism
The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into confli…
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Unfolding Futures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing for the Twenty-First Century
In the summer and autumn of 2016, American Indian people1 (re)entered American political consciousness in ways not seen since the takeover of the South Dakota village of Wounded Knee in 1973. Wounded Knee featured a seventy-one-day siege, the mobilization of the American military against Indian activists, and copious media reportage; and it came on the heels of the 1972 takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., the seizure and…
Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge
Systems of (non-)diversity
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict
We report a series of experiments carried out with Palestinian and Israeli participants showing that violent opposition to compromise over issues considered sacred is ( i ) increased by offering material incentives to compromise but ( ii ) decreased when the adversary makes symbolic compromises over their own sacred values. These results demonstrate some of the unique properties of reasoning and decision-making over sacred values. We show that th…
Experience and Cultural Models Matter: Placing Firm Limits on Childhood Anthropocentrism
This paper builds on Hatano and Inagaki’s pioneering work on the role of experience and cultural models in children’s biological reasoning. We use a category-based induction task to consider how experience and cultural models shape rural and urban children’s patterns of biological reasoning. We discuss the implications of these findings for developmental theory and educational practice
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge
The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature
An analysis of the cognitive consequences of diminished contact with nature examines the relationship between how people think about the natural world and how they act on it, and how these are affected by cultural differences. Surveys show that our growing concern over protecting the environment is accompanied by a diminishing sense of human contact with nature. Many people have little commonsense knowledge about nature—are unable, for example, t…
Innovations in Culturally Based Science Education Through Partnerships and Community
Psychology out of the laboratory: The challenge of violent extremism
The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into confli…
Emerging Trends in Culture and Concepts
The relation between culture and concepts has long been a fascinating topic for layperson and scientist alike. But often this topic has generated more heat than light—strong claims have been paired with weak evidence, and anecdotes have been more common than empirical data. More recently, however, interdisciplinary research programs have begun to demonstrate that interest in the relation between culture and concepts is not misplaced. In this essa…
Learning by Observing, Pitching in, and Being in Relations in the Natural World
Systems of (non-)diversity
Categories and Taxonomies
Categories and taxonomies are critical components in uncovering how humans categorize and reason about the world. This entry reviews research in anthropology and psychology to provide cross‐disciplinary insights on conceptual organization of natural kinds. It also summarizes evidence on the use of categories in reasoning to support the proposition for a shift in orientation from a singular focus on taxonomic reasoning to viewing taxonomic and eco…
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Unfolding Futures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing for the Twenty-First Century
In the summer and autumn of 2016, American Indian people1 (re)entered American political consciousness in ways not seen since the takeover of the South Dakota village of Wounded Knee in 1973. Wounded Knee featured a seventy-one-day siege, the mobilization of the American military against Indian activists, and copious media reportage; and it came on the heels of the 1972 takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., the seizure and…
Sociology (14 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Biology (5 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (5 works) · Environmental ethics (5 works)