Premium
Dual Character Concepts in Social Cognition: Commitments and the Normative Dimension of Conceptual Representation
Author(s) -
Del Pinal Guillermo,
Reuter Kevin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/cogs.12456
Subject(s) - normative , categorization , dimension (graph theory) , character (mathematics) , dual (grammatical number) , representation (politics) , normative social influence , psychology , function (biology) , cognition , epistemology , cognitive dimensions of notations , normative model of decision making , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , cognitive science , mathematics , communication , political science , politics , philosophy , linguistics , geometry , evolutionary biology , neuroscience , biology , pure mathematics , law
The concepts expressed by social role terms such as artist and scientist are unique in that they seem to allow two independent criteria for categorization, one of which is inherently normative (Knobe, Prasada, & Newman, 2013). This study presents and tests an account of the content and structure of the normative dimension of these “dual character concepts.” Experiment 1 suggests that the normative dimension of a social role concept represents the commitment to fulfill the idealized basic function associated with the role. Background information can affect which basic function is associated with each social role. However, Experiment 2 indicates that the normative dimension always represents the relevant commitment as an end in itself. We argue that social role concepts represent the commitments to basic functions because that information is crucial to predict the future social roles and role‐dependent behavior of others.