ABSTRACT

Group norms are necessary for navigating the social world, but they also constrain how we think about individuals. This manuscript progresses in three parts, along the way integrating research from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, as well as the broader social sciences, to present a theoretical perspective on how the tendency to interpret descriptive norms (i.e., what is) as prescriptive (i.e., what should be) is an early emerging bias to maintain the status quo. First, I define descriptive-to-prescriptive reasoning and review previous research on how it maintains the status quo. Second, I review a recent programme of research on the early development of descriptive-to-prescriptive reasoning. Third, I provide suggestions for future research, particularly in the domain of redirecting descriptive-to-prescriptive reasoning for good. Overall, I propose that descriptive-to-prescriptive reasoning biases children to keep groups in their place and prevent them from changing. Implications for stereotyping and group-based inequality are discussed.

摘要

群体规范对于驾驭社会世界是必要的，但它们也限制了我们对个人的看法。这份手稿分为三个部分，在整合认知、发展和社会心理学以及更广泛的社会科学的研究的过程中，提出了一个理论观点，即如何将描述性规范（即，什么是）解释为规定性的。 （即，应该是什么) 是一种早期出现的维持现状的偏见。首先，我定义了描述性到规范性的推理，并回顾了以前关于它如何维持现状的研究。其次，我回顾了最近关于描述性到规范性推理早期发展的研究计划。第三，我为未来的研究提供建议，特别是在将描述性推理重定向到规范性推理领域。总的来说，我建议描述性到规定性的推理偏向于让孩子们保持小组在他们的位置并阻止他们改变。讨论了刻板印象和基于群体的不平等的影响。