[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The Origins of Social Categorization

## Details

**Authors** Liberman et al.

**Year** 2017

**Publisher** Trends in Cognitive Sciences

**Discipline** Cognitive Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.04.004) 
10.1016/j.tics.2017.04.004

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Explored the impact that social categories have on people and society.

### What they found (results)

Social categories help people navigate the increasingly complex social world around them. They wrote, “forming conceptually-rich categories has obvious functional value – social categories organize our vast knowledge about human attributes and about the complex relationship networks that comprise human social life.

## Commentary

### In short

These conceptually-rich social categories emerge before the provision of verbal information can affect social knowledge, suggesting that the ability to form social categories does not depend on explicit learning about the cultural or stereotypic content associated with different groups. Further, the ability to use these categories to draw inferences about social structures likely drives social thinking and learning from early on. Awareness of DSRP maintains the positive aspects of categorization and increases awareness about the negative effects as well

### In more detail

Liberman et. al. 2017 argued that social categories help people navigate the increasingly complex social world around them. Through reasoning about predictable thoughts, actions, beliefs, and possible interactions with and among others are guided via the group membership that individual(s) assign to themselves. Thus, categorization within the social realm has some positive effects. They wrote, “forming conceptually-rich categories has obvious functional value – social categories organize our vast knowledge about human attributes and about the complex relationship networks that comprise human social life.” In other words, people use information about group membership to infer whether they will share properties, and how people will interact. Thus, these conceptually-rich social categories emerge before the provision of verbal information can affect social knowledge, suggesting that the ability to form social categories does not depend on explicit learning about the cultural or stereotypic content associated with different groups. Further, the ability to use these categories to draw inferences about social structures likely drives social thinking and learning from early on.

The downside of those very same categories is the unintended consequences like bias, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Interestingly, social categorization requires the individual to place themselves into their desired group. Psychologists are careful to state that prejudice takes many forms, “social psychologists have long noted the distinction between explicit prejudice (negative affect towards an outgroup) and endorsement of stereotypes (cognitive representations of culturally held beliefs about a group).” Therefore the awareness of how one organizes thoughts into part/whole systems based on a particular perspective—is a useful way to increase awareness of one’s biases. Awareness of DSRP maintains the positive aspects of categorization and increases awareness about the negative effects as well.

**Patterns it shows** S

**How to cite this** Liberman et al. (2017). The Origins of Social Categorization. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.