Self Essentialist Belief and Well-Being

Abstract

Psychological essentialism refers to the widespread belief that entities, such as kinds of animals or groups of people, have certain underlying immutable characteristics that are necessary for membership in a particular category. The aim of the present research was to expand on recent research to further investigate the effects of when people apply this kind of reasoning to selves, specifically whether doing so might have an impact on perceptions of authenticity and well-being. Studies 1A & 1B (N=544) revealed that individual differences in self-essentialist beliefs positively correlate with a range of measures of perceived authenticity and well-being. Studies 2A & 2B (N=1089) utilized an experimental paradigm that manipulated self-essentialist beliefs by presenting fabricated scientific articles that provided evidence for either high or low immutability of personality traits in humans. Significant mediational pathways were discovered from condition through self-essentialist beliefs for nearly every dependent variable of interest. This research has potentially important implications towards our understanding of how people’s intuitions about self-hood relate to perceptions of authenticity and well-being