What is the Essentialism bias?
The Essentialism bias is a cognitive bias that favors ideas or objects that have an underlying nature that can be defined. Essentialism helps people to create rules, categories and hierarchies while ignoring exceptions to these structures.
Why this bias is dangerous?
Essentialism is considered to be dangerous, because it can lead to discrimination and stereotypes. People who share essentialist beliefs tend to see the differences between social groups (men and women) as innate and immutable. Essentialist beliefs can make people believe their own stereotypes about a group of people, without questioning these views or considering other explanations for the observed behavior.
Why do people use this bias?
People use the Essentialism bias when they cannot explain something in circumstances where they normally would be able to account for an event that has occurred. Instead of using Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution), they apply essentialism when needed to create an explanation that fits with what they already think about the world.
How do people use this bias?
People tend to use essentialism when they need to make sense of the world around them. They apply their beliefs, experiences and biases to fit an explanation that explains why something is happening. People will either reduce complex events into simpler versions or have more nuanced explanations with different levels of detail. For example, someone might say that getting dumped is due to being on a bad run in terms of relationships rather than believing it is just ‘bad luck.’
Essentialist thinking can lead people to believe that there are only two types of personality – introverts and extroverts – where really there are at least four groups of personality types based on these variables. People who think in this way generally over-simplify information and ignore any exceptions to their thinking.
How can we create this bias?
People create this bias when they use their own experiences of the world to explain what is happening around them. They might rely on personal anecdotes, generalize their beliefs and apply these rules without considering exceptions. Often people who think in an essentialist way will describe themselves as more complex than others because they see themselves as someone who has many different traits that do not fit into one category.
How to avoid this bias?
One way to avoid thinking with the Essentialism cognitive bias is by using Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution) when trying to make sense of something. Instead of over-complicating why something happened, it is often helpful to break down events into smaller components which are easier for people to understand. When treating others remember that every person is unique and the likelihood of them having any one trait is very unlikely.
Essentialism bias examples:
Homosexuality – there are many religions that believe homosexuality to be a sin because it goes against God’s design for humans, therefore if someone thinks in an essentialist way then they would assume that all homosexual people went against God’s plan when he created human beings.
Stereotyping – essentialist thinking often leads people to think everyone of one group possesses some character trait. For example, all teenage girls wear makeup and dye their hair the same color or that gay men enjoy shopping and fashion.
Other examples: child abuse; crime; stereotypes; bullying; politics; race issues…
Conclusion:
Essentialism is dangerous because it causes us to make assumptions about entire groups of people based on a few examples. If we think about people as individual members of a group, rather than part of a clearly outlined category, then we will be able to make more accurate judgements and learn from our mistakes.
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