The Nature of Humans

This chapter outlines how humans conceive of other humans and looks at the interacting roles of cognitive biases and cultural processes in the development of these conceptions. Extant prior research has argued that conceptions of other humans rely on folk theories of physics, biology, and psychology. Evidence from developmental psychology also indicates that children and adults have intuitions that individuals have a quintessence that confers a unique identity. The social and environmental context of an individual, as well as the cultural practices, become part of that individual’s quintessence. The chapter concludes by proposing that in addition to relying on folk physics, biology, and psychology, humans also employ a folk anthropology in reasoning about other humans. This folk anthropology system is dedicated to processing inferences about how an individual’s essence is maintained or altered by social, environmental, and cultural contexts and practices.