ERC Starting Grant · 2023
Second Nature: Towards an Information-Processing Theory of the Reification of Social Reality
Social reality is comprised of numerous social constructs such as institutions, practices, and norms. These constructs are mind-dependent (e.g., paper money is valuable because people believe it is). Research suggests that when people misconstrue social constructs to be mind-independent facts (e.g., viewing inequality as a fact of nature), they are less likely to question their legitimacy. Thus, the attribution of mind-independence to social constructs, or reification, plays a critical role in governing human behavior. Despite the importance of this process, we currently do not have a general scientific theory that explains reification across its varied instantiations (e.g., the reification…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.