The effects of stress perception due to COVID-19 and category coherence on category-based inductive generalization

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to confirm that the property generalization to social categories with low coherence is stronger when stress due to COVID-19 is perceived as high, compared to when stress is perceived as low. To this end, this study selected categories with high coherence(nun, soldier, flight attendant) and categories with low coherence(wedding planner, interpreter, florist), and recruited 336 participants to perform a category-based inductive generalization task(inferring how many properties repeatedly observed by some category members would appear across all category members), and measured their perceived COVID-19 stress. As a result, this study showed that when the cohesion of social categories is high, the effect of property generalization is stronger than when it is low, and the effect of property generalization is stronger in those who perceive stress due to Corona 19 higher than those who perceive it as low. In addition, this study confirmed that people who perceive COVID-19 stress strongly tend to generalize strongly to properties that are repeatedly observed in the low coherence category. This study is important in that it shows that there is a cognitive mechanism that is at the root of the phenomenon that stereotypes and prejudices deepen and discriminatory behaviors increase after the outbreak of COVID-19, such as COVID-19 stress and the resulting increase in attribute generalization tendency. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Korean Journal of Cognitive Science is the property of Korean Society for Cognitive Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)