Current study
In this study, our goal is to explore how generic statements (compared with specific statements) elicit different components of essentialist thinking about a novel social category, and to examine if content of generics (biologic vs. cultural) modulate this effect. By doing so, (1) we can test whether previous results are generalizable to a non-WEIRD society and to speakers of a language other than English and (2) we take a step to shed light on the underlying mechanisms explained above. Based on previous research, we predict that generic descriptions about a novel social category, compared to specific descriptions about a member of a social category, lead children to appeal to category-based, intrinsic explanations. Yet, we expect that only generics with biological predicates give rise to an inborn/inheritable view of the category.