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Second Nature: Towards an Information-Processing Theory of the Reification of Social Reality

Objective

Social reality is comprised of numerous social constructs such as institutions, practices, and norms. These constructs are mind-dependent (e.g. paper money is valuable because people believe it is). Research suggests that when people misconstrue social constructs to be mind-independent facts (e.g. viewing inequality as a fact of nature), they are less likely to question their legitimacy. Thus, the attribution of mind-independence to social constructs, or reification, plays a critical role in governing human behavior. Despite the importance of this process, we currently do not have a general scientific theory that explains reification across its varied instantiations (e.g. the reification of nations, economic systems, mental ailments). In the proposed project I aim to develop and test a domain-general, information-processing theory of reification.
My pilot data suggest that there is both between-individual and within-individual gradation in the extent to which constructs are reified. I argue that in both cases, reification may be a consequence of (i) de-mentalizing (i.e. adopting a mindset and a discourse that does not consider mental states); (ii) the mere passage of time and increased experience with the construct; (iii) abstraction of knowledge (in which the process of generating facts omits information concerning the human origins of constructs, giving rise to erroneous inferences of naturalness). These three processes may be causally related (i.e. with increased experience, constructs are abstracted, leading to de-mentalizing); however, they also represent three stand-alone hypotheses which will be assessed across five work-packagesusing neuroimaging, natural language processing methods, longitudinal big-data analyses, and behavioral paradigms from experimental economics and memory research.
A better understanding of reification may help us devise interventions to de-reify maladaptive states of affairs, thereby addressing some of society's greatest ills.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

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Host institution

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 499 465,00
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 499 465,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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