People hold fundamentally different theories about natural kinds versus human-made categories

Evidence

Natural kinds are categories of objects whose existence is somehow defined by nature; the members all share some category-defining feature(s). Robins are robins because of their natural make-up, their genetic structure, their physical being. In contrast, artifactual categories consist of objects created by humans, typically to perform some function or meet some need. Cars, for example, were invented to enable people to move about, to meet their transportation needs. As a result, people do not tend to have the same kinds of theories about automobiles that they do about biological and racial groups. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1386

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines natural kinds versus artifactual categories, a framing that explains why people essentialize races but not cars.
• XREF: connects to: the MOC “The Wound of the Label: When Knowing Someone Becomes a Way of Erasing Them”