People categorize things by similarity to prototypes rather than by shared defining features

Evidence

A key idea in the cognitive psychology literature is that individuals categorize based on the similarity to prototypes. Whether a certain animal is considered a “bird” depends on how similar it is to prototypical birds like robins, sparrows, etc. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts, 201

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the family-resemblance literature and to fuzzy-set methods, since prototype similarity implies graded membership. — connects to: Humans infer unseen traits of new species from essentialized hierarchical categories. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 267
• SEED: Angle: ‘Your brain never learned to define anything’ — everyday categorization as prototype-matching, and what it implies for law, taxonomy, and AI labels.