Visible physical differences trigger assumptions of deeper underlying differences.

Evidence

Allport argued that racial and ethnic categories reflect a pernicious kind of essentialism that shapes the nature of stereotypes ( Jost & Hamilton). These beliefs develop because categories often stem from differences in physical appearance that are visibly salient. Allport noted, “Even a fragment of visibility … focuses people’s minds on the possibility that everything may be related to this fragment” (p. 109); and he observed, “Where visibility does exist, it is almost always thought to be linked with deeper lying traits than is in fact the case” (p. 132). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 113

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to essentialism and category-based inference claims in the prejudice-psychology vault thread. — connects to: Adaptive problems reduce to reading imperfect environmental cues of two kinds. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 31; Judgements of similarity depend on the available comparative frame, not just absolute difference. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 50
• DEFINE: Quotes Allport’s own articulation of how visible markers drive essence attribution
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 113