Mia Chang - Strategy & Innovation, Boston University
Date and Time
Location
"The Duality of Prototypes for Category Evolution: How Medical Professionals Constructed the Category AIDS (1978-1985)"
In contrast to the existing literature which views the construction of categorical meanings as functional, prototypes based on salient features in the early evolution of a category can be a double-edged sword. I show this drawing on an inductive study of how medical professionals constructed the category AIDS in the early 1980s before a clear viral test was developed. Salient features of AIDS, such as homosexuality and visual symptoms, helped medical professionals recognize the outbreak of a new disease, but later prevented them from timely sensemaking of the more complicated reality. An early focus on salient features and prototypes might facilitate identifying that there is something in need of categorization, however, later on these same salient features create biases, which hinder the classification of new cases.