Ascribing inner dispositions essentializes stereotyped traits into fixed group character.

Evidence

In Extract 6.5, Sandra explains the inappropriate response to her magnanimous act by using an extreme dispositional formulation (’ they like living in dirt’, l. 420). She uses a disposition formulation (notice the emphasized ‘like’) as a way of saying that whatever she is claiming about Romanies is a characteristic of their disposition towards the world. The ascription of an inner disposition is a powerful rhetorical tool in the work of essentializing the attributed stereotypical traits of Roma. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 592

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: how ordinary descriptors like ‘they like living in dirt’ do the heavy lifting of dehumanization without any hateful vocabulary.
• XREF: connects to: Psychological explanations that stop at irreducible character traits beg the question — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1322