Categorization is an unavoidable prerequisite for all human thought

Evidence

One of Allport’s most provocative and inspiring ideas was that stereotyping is grounded in a basic, unavoidable, categorization process. People are not capable of thought in the absence of concepts. New experiences remain meaningless unless they are incorporated into preexisting categories. Open-mindedness, Allport noted, “is considered to be a virtue. But strictly speaking, it cannot occur. A new experience must be redacted into old categories” (1954/1979, p. 20). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1151

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds the core premise of Allport’s theory that the vault’s existing contact-theory/self-categorization claims rest on — pure unprejudiced perception is impossible.
• DEFINE: Clarifies that ‘open-mindedness’ in Allport’s sense is a strict impossibility rather than an ideal.