People stretch old frameworks to fit new phenomena rather than abandon them

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). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1151 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Ideologies are therefore transformed “through the class struggle, which is carried out through the production of subjects and the articulation/disarticulation of discourses.” This follows Gramsci, who argued that ideologies cannot be reduced to the transparent, coherent “class interests” of their class-subjects, and that ideologies are transformed, not by one class imposing a unitary “world vision” upon all other classes, but by “a process of distinction and of change in the relative weight possessed by the elements of the old ideology … what was secondary or subordinate or even incidental becomes of primary importance, it becomes the nucleus of a new doctrinal and ideological ensemble” (Mouffe 1978; see also Mouffe for an important elaboration of this argument in relation to Gramsci). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 629 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The first principle enlists the power of social modeling for personal and social change. Characters in the dramas include models exhibiting beneficial, dysfunctional, or transitional patterns of behavior. By dramatizing alternative behaviors and their effects on the characters’ lives, the dramas help people make informed choices in their own lives. Viewers and listeners are especially likely to draw inspiration from, and identify with, transitional models who overcome adverse life circumstances like their own. Seeing people similar to themselves succeed through sustained effort increases observers’ belief that they, too, can improve their lives. The greater the assumed similarity, the more persuasive the model’s successes and failures (Bandura, 1986). Modeling influences do more than build people’s belief in their own capabilities. Through their behavior and expressed ways of thinking, competent models transmit knowledge and teach observers effective skills and strategies for managing environmental demands. Acquisition of better means increases perceived self-efficacy. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2822 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: New economic forms usually revert to established practices rather than fully institutionalizing — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 145; Nativist ideas resurface faster because prior foundations persist submerged — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 647; Time pressure drives designers to copy old solutions to new problems — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2091 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Human thought fundamentally requires categorizing new experiences into old concepts. #corroborates (1.00) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1151
• Ideology changes by reweighting old elements, not by imposition #corroborates (1.00) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 629
• People adopt change when relatable models demonstrate it succeeds #complicates (0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2822
• Historical change forces theorists to invent new, more concrete concepts #complicates (0.80)
• Works become foundational by synthesizing perspectives rather than championing one theory #complicates (0.70) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 98
• Postmodernists enabled misuse of their ideas by retreating into subtlety #complicates (0.70) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 249
• Modern individuals receive abstract universality ready-made rather than forging it from concrete life #complicates (0.70)
• Intellectual breakthroughs make old ways of speaking optional rather than exposing truth #complicates (0.70) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 851