Sep 22 – 25, 2024
Noto (SR)
Europe/Rome timezone

Similarities Between Categories Are Much Larger Than Their Differences: A Cautionary Note for Interpreting Individual Differences

Sep 24, 2024, 4:30 PM
10m
Aula 1 (con proiezione in aula 2)

Aula 1 (con proiezione in aula 2)

Talk in simposio Symposia

Speaker

Cristina Zogmeister

Description

Given the enormous amount of discourse in popular media and in research around gender differences, a person could be excused for believing the cliché that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Many other categorial individual differences, such as ethnicity, nationality, and religion, are met with similar beliefs about the enormity of differences. In this presentation, I will show the dangers of an approach to research that focuses on individual differences to the expense of noting similarities. To illustrate the importance of acknowledging similarities in addition to differences, the presentation will focus on data regarding between-category similarities and differences in human values. Around the world, people talk about the importance of their values – ideals such as equality, freedom, helpfulness, or the environment. People use these abstract ideals to justify their attitudes and actions, and to praise or condemn others. It is frequently assumed that values differ substantially between people, with differences between numerous social categories, such as culture, gender, nationality, political views, religiosity, and social class. This presentation highlights evidence that the reality is very different. International data show strong similarities in values between diverse groups. The research not only demonstrates high similarity, but also shows that introducing people to this similarity increases outgroup positivity and optimism about solving societal challenges, while having the potential to increase intellectual humility in debate.

If you're submitting a symposium talk, what's the symposium title? Le differenze individuali nella ricerca sperimentale

Primary author

Prof. Gregory R. Maio (University of Bath)

Co-author

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.