Editing Cognitive categorization (section)

== Social categorization ==
'''Social categorization''' consists of putting human beings into groups in order to identify them based on different criteria. Categorization is a process studied by scholars in cognitive science but can also be studied as a social activity. Social categorization is different from the categorization of other things because it implies that people create categories for themselves and others as human beings.<ref name=":0" /> Groups can be created based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, sexual identity, social privileges, economic privileges, etc. Various ways to sort people exist according to one's schemas. People belong to various social groups because of their ethnicity, religion, or age.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Reicher |first1=Stephen |last2=Hopkins |first2=Nick |date=2001 |title=Psychology and the End of History: A Critique and a Proposal for the Psychology of Social Categorization |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3791934 |journal=Political Psychology |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=383–407 |doi=10.1111/0162-895X.00246 |jstor=3791934 |issn=0162-895X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Social categories based on age, race, and gender are used by people when they encounter a new person. Because some of these categories refer to physical traits, they are often used automatically when people do not know each other.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Liberman |first1=Zoe |last2=Woodward |first2=Amanda L. |last3=Kinzler |first3=Katherine D. |year=2017 |title=The Origins of Social Categorization |journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences |volume=21 |issue=7 |pages=556–568 |doi=10.1016/j.tics.2017.04.004 |pmc=5605918 |pmid=28499741}}</ref> These categories are not objective and depend on how people see the world around them. They allow people to identify themselves with similar people, and to identify people who are different. They are useful in one's identity formation with the people around them. One can build their own identity by identifying themselves in a group or by rejecting another group.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last1=Bodenhausen |first1=Galen V. |title=Social Categorization and the Perception of Social Groups |date=2012 |url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/hdbk_socialcognition/n16.xml |work=The SAGE Handbook of Social Cognition |pages=311–329 |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |doi=10.4135/9781446247631.n16 |isbn=978-0-85702-481-7 |last2=Kang |first2=Sonia K. |last3=Peery |first3=Destiny|s2cid=151765438 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Social categorization is similar to other types of categorization since it aims at simplifying the understanding of people. However, creating social categories implies that people will position themselves in relation to other groups. A hierarchy in group relations can appear as a result of social categorization.<ref name=":1" />

Scholars argue that the categorization process starts at a young age when children start to learn about the world and the people around them. Children learn how to know people according to categories based on similarities and differences. Social categories made by adults also impact their understanding of the world. They learn about social groups by hearing generalities about these groups from their parents. They can then develop prejudices about people as a result of these generalities.<ref name=":2" />

Another aspect of social categorization is mentioned by Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins and is related to political domination. They argue that political leaders use social categories to influence political debates.<ref name=":4" />

=== Negative aspects ===
The activity of sorting people according to subjective or objective criteria can be seen as a negative process because of its tendency to lead to violence from a group to another.<ref name=":3" /> Indeed, similarities gather people who share common traits but differences between groups can lead to tensions and then the use of violence between those groups. The creation of social groups by people is responsible of a hierarchization of relations between groups.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Tajfel |first=H |year=1982 |title=Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.000245 |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=1–39 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.000245 |issn=0066-4308|url-access=subscription }}</ref> These hierarchical relations participate in the promotion of stereotypes about people and groups, sometimes based on subjective criteria. Social categories can encourage people to associate stereotypes to groups of people. Associating stereotypes to a group, and to people who belong to this group, can lead to forms of discrimination towards people of this group.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hugenberg |first1=Kurt |last2=Bodenhausen |first2=Galen V. |year=2004 |title=Ambiguity in Social Categorization: The Role of Prejudice and Facial Affect in Race Categorization |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00680.x |journal=Psychological Science |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=342–345 |doi=10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00680.x |pmid=15102145 |s2cid=14677163 |issn=0956-7976|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The perception of a group and the stereotypes associated with it have an impact on social relations and activities.

Some social categories have more weight than others in society. For instance, in history and still today, the category of "race" is one of the first categories used to sort people. However, only a few categories of race are commonly used such as "Black", "White", "Asian" etc. It participates in the reduction of the multitude of ethnicities to a few categories based mostly on people's skin color.<ref>Nadine Chaurand. Stéréotypisation. Catégorisation sociale. Dictionnaire historique et critique du racisme, PUF, 10p, 2013. ffhal-00966930</ref>

The process of sorting people creates a vision of the other as 'different', leading to the dehumanization of people. Scholars talk about intergroup relations with the concept of [[social identity theory]] developed by H. Tajfel.<ref name=":3" /> Indeed, in history, many examples of social categorization have led to forms of domination or violence from a dominant group to a dominated group. Periods of colonisation are examples of times when people from a group chose to dominate and control other people belonging to other groups because they considered them as inferior. Racism, discrimination and violence are consequences of social categorization and can occur because of it. When people see others as different, they tend to develop hierarchical relation with other groups.<ref name=":3" />