Essentialism is the belief that certain characteristics (of individuals or categories) may be relatively stable, unchanging, likely to be present at birth, and biologically based. The current studies examined how different essentialist beliefs interrelate. For example, does thinking that a property is innate imply that the property cannot be…

Two studies examined models that preschoolers, fifth-graders, and adults use to guide predictions of self-beneficial, goal-directed action. Found that preschoolers' predictions were consistent with an animal-based model, fifth-graders' with biology-based and complexity-based models, and adults' predictions with a biology-based model. All age…

Four studies with kindergarten through fifth graders and adults examined the development of reasoning about the origins of psychological traits. Results suggested an age-related increase in the tendency to distinguish among different psychological traits, and that over time, individuals come to believe that psychological traits are determined…