Human categorization is a universal navigational tool for social worlds

Evidence

We all engage in “making up people” (Hacking 2006, 1999) as a way to navigate in the social world — to situate ourselves and others in the context of social hierarchies, to discern friend from foe, and to provide a guide to social interactions with different individuals and groups. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 28

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Race is one among several constructed categories used to justify inequality (similarity 0.79)
• Individuals hold multiple, flexibly deployable social self-categories simultaneously (similarity 0.78)
• Humans can recognize thousands while social worlds cater to the least clever (similarity 0.78)