Lingering stereotypes: Salience bias in philosophical argument
Mind and Language 35 (4):415-439 (2020)
Abstract
Many philosophical thought experiments and arguments involve unusual cases. We present empirical reasons to doubt the reliability of intuitive judgments and conclusions about such cases. Inferences and intuitions prompted by verbal case descriptions are influenced by routine comprehension processes which invoke stereotypes. We build on psycholinguistic findings to determine conditions under which the stereotype associated with the most salient sense of a word predictably supports inappropriate inferences from descriptions of unusual (stereotype-divergent) cases. We conduct an experiment that combines plausibility ratings with pupillometry to document this “salience bias.” We find that under certain conditions, competent speakers automatically make stereotypical inferences they know to be inappropriate.Author Profiles
DOI
10.1111/mila.12249
My notes
Similar books and articles
Eyes as windows to minds: Psycholinguistics for experimental philosophy.Eugen Fischer & Paul E. Engelhardt - 2019 - In Eugen Fischer & Mark Curtis (eds.), Methodological Advances in Experimental Philosophy. London, UK: Bloomsbury. pp. 43-100.
Intuitions' Linguistic Sources: Stereotypes, Intuitions and Illusions.Eugen Fischer & Paul E. Engelhardt - 2016 - Mind and Language 31 (1):67-103.
Experimental ordinary language philosophy: a cross-linguistic study of defeasible default inferences.Eugen Fischer, Paul E. Engelhardt, Joachim Horvath & Hiroshi Ohtani - 2019 - Synthese 198 (2):1029-1070.
Stereotypical Inferences: Philosophical Relevance and Psycholinguistic Toolkit.Eugen Fischer & Paul E. Engelhardt - 2017 - Ratio 30 (4):411-442.
Gender Stereotypes and Figurative Language Comprehension.Roberta Cocco & Francesca Ervas - 2012 - Humana Mente 5 (22).
Intuitions and illusions: From explanation and experiment to assessment.Eugen Fischer, Paul E. Engelhardt & Aurelie Herbelot - 2015 - In Eugen Fischer & John Collins (eds.), Experimental Philosophy, Rationalism, and Naturalism. Rethinking Philosophical Method. Routledge. pp. 259-292.
Anti-intellectualism, egocentrism and bank case intuitions.Alexander Dinges - 2018 - Philosophical Studies 175 (11):2841-2857.
Context and Perceptual Salience Influence the Formation of Novel Stereotypes via Cumulative Cultural Evolution.Jacqui Hutchison, Sheila J. Cunningham, Gillian Slessor, James Urquhart, Kenny Smith & Douglas Martin - 2018 - Cognitive Science 42 (S1):186-212.
Philosophical Method and Intuitions as Assumptions.Kevin Patrick Tobia - 2015 - Metaphilosophy 46 (4-5):575-594.
Virtue, Social Knowledge, and Implicit Bias.Alex Madva - 2016 - In Jennifer Saul & Michael Brownstein (eds.), Implicit Bias and Philosophy, Volume 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology. pp. 191-215.
Why Don’t Philosophers Do Their Intuition Practice?James Andow - 2019 - Acta Analytica 34 (3):257-269.
The Philosophical Personality Argument.Adam Feltz & Edward T. Cokely - 2012 - Philosophical Studies 161 (2):227-246.
Verbal Fallacies and Philosophical Intuitions: The Continuing Relevance of Ordinary Language Analysis.Eugen Fischer - 2014 - In Brian Garvey (ed.), Austin on Language. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 124-140.
Faith and Fair Trade: The Moderating Role of Contextual Religious Salience.Rommel O. Salvador, Altaf Merchant & Elizabeth A. Alexander - 2014 - Journal of Business Ethics 121 (3):353-371.
Frontal eye field: A cortical salience map.Kirk G. Thompson & Narcisse P. Bichot - 1999 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 (4):699-700.
Analytics
Added to PP
2019-03-11
Downloads
635 (#14,762)
6 months
87 (#11,208)
2019-03-11
Downloads
635 (#14,762)
6 months
87 (#11,208)
Historical graph of downloads
Author Profiles
Citations of this work
Great Minds Do Not Think Alike: Philosophers’ Views Predicted By Reflection, Education, Personality, And Other Demographic Differences.Nick Byrd - forthcoming - Review of Philosophy and Psychology:1-38.
Reflective Intuitions about the Causal Theory of Perception across Sensory Modalities.Pendaran Roberts, Keith Allen & Kelly Schmidtke - 2021 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 12 (2):257-277.
Inappropriate stereotypical inferences? An adversarial collaboration in experimental ordinary language philosophy.Eugen Fischer, Paul E. Engelhardt & Justin Sytsma - 2020 - Synthese 198 (11):10127-10168.
References found in this work
Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman - 1974 - Science 185 (4157):1124-1131.
Moral responsibility and determinism: The cognitive science of folk intuitions.Shaun Nichols & Joshua Knobe - 2007 - Noûs 41 (4):663–685.
Intuitions and Experiments: A Defense of the Case Method in Epistemology.Jennifer Nagel - 2012 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85 (3):495-527.
An integrated theory of language production and comprehension.Martin J. Pickering & Simon Garrod - 2013 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36 (4):329-347.
How to challenge intuitions empirically without risking skepticism.Jonathan M. Weinberg - 2007 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 31 (1):318–343.