The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Annie Murphy Paul

There even appear to be hard-wired psychological factors underlying our embrace of these ideas about the brain. The belief that some core quantity of intelligence resides within each of our heads fits with a pattern of thought, apparently universal in humans, that psychologists call “essentialism”—that is, the conviction that each entity we encounter possesses an inner essence that makes it what it is. “Essentialism shows up in every society that has been studied,” notes Yale University psychology professor Paul Bloom. “It appears to be a basic component of how we think about the world.” We think in terms of enduring essences—rather than shifting responses to external influences—because we find such essences easier to process mentally, as well as more satisfying emotionally. From the essentialist perspective, people simply “are” intelligent or they are not.