Marjorie Rhodes
Biographic Data
| ID | 3602096 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marjorie Rhodes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marjorie |
| FAMILY NAME | Rhodes |
| SIGNATURE | RHODES M |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4664-6056 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Seeking New Information With Old Questions: Children and Adults Reuse and Recombine Concepts From Prior Questions
Question asking is a key tool for learning about the world, especially in childhood. However, formulating good questions is challenging. In any given situation, many questions are possible but only few are informative. In the present work, we investigate two ways 5- to 10-year-olds and adults simplify the challenge of formulating questions: by reusing previous questions, and by recombining components of previous questions to form new questions. I…
Girls as objects, boys as humans: Young children tend to be objectified along gender lines
Objectification-the psychological phenomenon of relegating people to the status of objects , denying their humanness-is associated with a host of negative consequences for those targeted, from diminished cognitive performance to heightened risk of danger. Girls and women constitute the primary targets of objectification; thus, these harms fall disproportionately on them. Despite the persistence of such gendered patterns, however, it is not clear …
Maladaptive but malleable: Gender-science stereotypes emerge early but are modifiable by language
Gender-science stereotypes emerge early in childhood, but little is known about the developmental processes by which they arise. The present study tested the hypothesis that language implying scientists are a special and distinct kind of person contributes to the development of gender-science stereotypes, even when it does not communicate stereotypic content. One cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies with racially and geographically divers…
A developmental investigation of group concepts in the context of social hierarchy: Can the powerful impose group membership
Does racial diversity affect White children’s racial bias and reasoning? Depends on where they live and how their social world is structured
By 4 years of age, White children from across the United States begin to exhibit an awareness of racial inequalities, along with in-group preferences for other White children. The present study explored how the size and racial diversity of White children's social network (e.g., friends, family, and classmates) and neighborhood (zip code) are related to variation in their explanations for racial disparities and anti-Black bias among a sample of 39…
The influence of linguistic form and causal explanations on the development of social essentialism
How children’s media and teachers communicate exclusive and essentialist views of science and scientists
Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., "Let's be scientists! Scientists discover new things") signals to children that "scientists" is a distinctive category. This identity-focused language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young children in experimental contexts. The extent to which these cues shape the development of children's beliefs and behavio…
Does It Matter How We Speak About Social Kinds? A Large, Preregistered, Online Experimental Study of How Language Shapes the Development of Essentialist Beliefs
A problematic way to think about social categories is to essentialize them—to treat particular differences between people as marking fundamentally distinct social kinds. From where do these beliefs arise? Language that expresses generic claims about categories elicits some aspects of essentialism, but the scope of these effects remains unclear. This study (N = 204, ages 4.5–8 years, 73% White; recruited predominantly from the United States and th…
Beliefs about social norms and racial inequalities predict variation in the early development of racial bias
Racism remains a pervasive force around the world with widespread and well documented harmful consequences for members of marginalized racial groups. The psychological biases that maintain structural and interpersonal racism begin to emerge in early childhood, but with considerable individual variation-some children develop more racial bias than others. The present study (N = 116; 4-year-old children) provides novel insights into the developmenta…
The Development of Social Essentialism
Asking Children to “Be Helpers” Can Backfire After Setbacks
Describing behaviors as reflecting categories (e.g., asking children to “be helpers”) has been found to increase pro-social behavior. The present studies (N = 139, ages 4–5) tested whether such effects backfire if children experience setbacks while performing category-relevant actions. In Study 1, children were asked either to “be helpers” or “to help,” and then pretended to complete a series of successful scenarios (e.g., pouring milk) and unsuc…
Essentialism Promotes Racial Prejudice by Increasing Endorsement of Social Hierarchies
Why do essentialist beliefs promote prejudice? We proposed that essentialist beliefs increase prejudice toward Black people because they imply that existing social hierarchies reflect a naturally occurring structure. We tested this hypothesis in three studies ( N = 621). Study 1 revealed that racial essentialism was associated with increased prejudice toward Blacks among both White and Black adult participants, suggesting that essentialism relate…
Cultural context shapes essentialist beliefs about religion
The present study investigates the processes by which essentialist beliefs about religious categories develop. Children (ages 5 and 10) and adults (n = 350) from 2 religious groups (Jewish and Christian), with a range of levels of religiosity, completed switched-at-birth tasks in which they were told that a baby had been born to parents of 1 religion but raised by parents of another religion. Results indicated that younger children saw religion-b…
What a Loaded Generalization: Generics and Social Cognition
This paper explores the role of generics in social cognition. First, we explore the nature and effects of the most common form of generics about social kinds (descriptive generics). Second, we discuss the nature and effects of a less common but equally important form of generics about social kinds (normative generics). Finally, we consider the implications of this discussion for how we ought to use language about the social world
Children’s use of categories and mental states to predict social behavior
Integrating generic information about categories with knowledge of specific individuals is a critical component of successful inductive inferences. The present study tested whether children's approach to this task systematically shifts as they develop causal understandings of the mechanisms that shape individual action. In the current study, 3- and 4-year-old children (N = 65) predicted harmful behaviors in scenarios that pitted category-based ex…
A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts
A Test in Black History
The role of the black American in historical accounts of the growth and development of the United States has been aptly described by Bill Cosby as lost, stolen, or strayed. Until the last decade, Whites, Blacks, and other minority Americans were led to believe that Blacks played a singular part in United States history -that of having served their masters as faithful servants within bondage of the institution of slavery. This misconception has pe…
What a Loaded Generalization: Generics and Social Cognition
This paper explores the role of generics in social cognition. First, we explore the nature and effects of the most common form of generics about social kinds (descriptive generics). Second, we discuss the nature and effects of a less common but equally important form of generics about social kinds (normative generics). Finally, we consider the implications of this discussion for how we ought to use language about the social world
Cultural context shapes essentialist beliefs about religion
The present study investigates the processes by which essentialist beliefs about religious categories develop. Children (ages 5 and 10) and adults (n = 350) from 2 religious groups (Jewish and Christian), with a range of levels of religiosity, completed switched-at-birth tasks in which they were told that a baby had been born to parents of 1 religion but raised by parents of another religion. Results indicated that younger children saw religion-b…
Beliefs about social norms and racial inequalities predict variation in the early development of racial bias
Racism remains a pervasive force around the world with widespread and well documented harmful consequences for members of marginalized racial groups. The psychological biases that maintain structural and interpersonal racism begin to emerge in early childhood, but with considerable individual variation-some children develop more racial bias than others. The present study (N = 116; 4-year-old children) provides novel insights into the developmenta…
Children’s use of categories and mental states to predict social behavior
Integrating generic information about categories with knowledge of specific individuals is a critical component of successful inductive inferences. The present study tested whether children's approach to this task systematically shifts as they develop causal understandings of the mechanisms that shape individual action. In the current study, 3- and 4-year-old children (N = 65) predicted harmful behaviors in scenarios that pitted category-based ex…
Does racial diversity affect White children’s racial bias and reasoning? Depends on where they live and how their social world is structured
By 4 years of age, White children from across the United States begin to exhibit an awareness of racial inequalities, along with in-group preferences for other White children. The present study explored how the size and racial diversity of White children's social network (e.g., friends, family, and classmates) and neighborhood (zip code) are related to variation in their explanations for racial disparities and anti-Black bias among a sample of 39…
How children’s media and teachers communicate exclusive and essentialist views of science and scientists
Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., "Let's be scientists! Scientists discover new things") signals to children that "scientists" is a distinctive category. This identity-focused language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young children in experimental contexts. The extent to which these cues shape the development of children's beliefs and behavio…
Girls as objects, boys as humans: Young children tend to be objectified along gender lines
Objectification-the psychological phenomenon of relegating people to the status of objects , denying their humanness-is associated with a host of negative consequences for those targeted, from diminished cognitive performance to heightened risk of danger. Girls and women constitute the primary targets of objectification; thus, these harms fall disproportionately on them. Despite the persistence of such gendered patterns, however, it is not clear …
A Test in Black History
The role of the black American in historical accounts of the growth and development of the United States has been aptly described by Bill Cosby as lost, stolen, or strayed. Until the last decade, Whites, Blacks, and other minority Americans were led to believe that Blacks played a singular part in United States history -that of having served their masters as faithful servants within bondage of the institution of slavery. This misconception has pe…
A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts
Children’s use of categories and mental states to predict social behavior
Integrating generic information about categories with knowledge of specific individuals is a critical component of successful inductive inferences. The present study tested whether children's approach to this task systematically shifts as they develop causal understandings of the mechanisms that shape individual action. In the current study, 3- and 4-year-old children (N = 65) predicted harmful behaviors in scenarios that pitted category-based ex…
What a Loaded Generalization: Generics and Social Cognition
This paper explores the role of generics in social cognition. First, we explore the nature and effects of the most common form of generics about social kinds (descriptive generics). Second, we discuss the nature and effects of a less common but equally important form of generics about social kinds (normative generics). Finally, we consider the implications of this discussion for how we ought to use language about the social world
Cultural context shapes essentialist beliefs about religion
The present study investigates the processes by which essentialist beliefs about religious categories develop. Children (ages 5 and 10) and adults (n = 350) from 2 religious groups (Jewish and Christian), with a range of levels of religiosity, completed switched-at-birth tasks in which they were told that a baby had been born to parents of 1 religion but raised by parents of another religion. Results indicated that younger children saw religion-b…
Essentialism Promotes Racial Prejudice by Increasing Endorsement of Social Hierarchies
Why do essentialist beliefs promote prejudice? We proposed that essentialist beliefs increase prejudice toward Black people because they imply that existing social hierarchies reflect a naturally occurring structure. We tested this hypothesis in three studies ( N = 621). Study 1 revealed that racial essentialism was associated with increased prejudice toward Blacks among both White and Black adult participants, suggesting that essentialism relate…
The Development of Social Essentialism
Asking Children to “Be Helpers” Can Backfire After Setbacks
Describing behaviors as reflecting categories (e.g., asking children to “be helpers”) has been found to increase pro-social behavior. The present studies (N = 139, ages 4–5) tested whether such effects backfire if children experience setbacks while performing category-relevant actions. In Study 1, children were asked either to “be helpers” or “to help,” and then pretended to complete a series of successful scenarios (e.g., pouring milk) and unsuc…
Does It Matter How We Speak About Social Kinds? A Large, Preregistered, Online Experimental Study of How Language Shapes the Development of Essentialist Beliefs
A problematic way to think about social categories is to essentialize them—to treat particular differences between people as marking fundamentally distinct social kinds. From where do these beliefs arise? Language that expresses generic claims about categories elicits some aspects of essentialism, but the scope of these effects remains unclear. This study (N = 204, ages 4.5–8 years, 73% White; recruited predominantly from the United States and th…
Beliefs about social norms and racial inequalities predict variation in the early development of racial bias
Racism remains a pervasive force around the world with widespread and well documented harmful consequences for members of marginalized racial groups. The psychological biases that maintain structural and interpersonal racism begin to emerge in early childhood, but with considerable individual variation-some children develop more racial bias than others. The present study (N = 116; 4-year-old children) provides novel insights into the developmenta…
The influence of linguistic form and causal explanations on the development of social essentialism
How children’s media and teachers communicate exclusive and essentialist views of science and scientists
Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., "Let's be scientists! Scientists discover new things") signals to children that "scientists" is a distinctive category. This identity-focused language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young children in experimental contexts. The extent to which these cues shape the development of children's beliefs and behavio…
A developmental investigation of group concepts in the context of social hierarchy: Can the powerful impose group membership
Does racial diversity affect White children’s racial bias and reasoning? Depends on where they live and how their social world is structured
By 4 years of age, White children from across the United States begin to exhibit an awareness of racial inequalities, along with in-group preferences for other White children. The present study explored how the size and racial diversity of White children's social network (e.g., friends, family, and classmates) and neighborhood (zip code) are related to variation in their explanations for racial disparities and anti-Black bias among a sample of 39…
Seeking New Information With Old Questions: Children and Adults Reuse and Recombine Concepts From Prior Questions
Question asking is a key tool for learning about the world, especially in childhood. However, formulating good questions is challenging. In any given situation, many questions are possible but only few are informative. In the present work, we investigate two ways 5- to 10-year-olds and adults simplify the challenge of formulating questions: by reusing previous questions, and by recombining components of previous questions to form new questions. I…
Girls as objects, boys as humans: Young children tend to be objectified along gender lines
Objectification-the psychological phenomenon of relegating people to the status of objects , denying their humanness-is associated with a host of negative consequences for those targeted, from diminished cognitive performance to heightened risk of danger. Girls and women constitute the primary targets of objectification; thus, these harms fall disproportionately on them. Despite the persistence of such gendered patterns, however, it is not clear …
Maladaptive but malleable: Gender-science stereotypes emerge early but are modifiable by language
Gender-science stereotypes emerge early in childhood, but little is known about the developmental processes by which they arise. The present study tested the hypothesis that language implying scientists are a special and distinct kind of person contributes to the development of gender-science stereotypes, even when it does not communicate stereotypic content. One cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies with racially and geographically divers…
Psychology (16 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (9 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Essentialism (6 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works)