A weight-related growth mindset increases negative attitudes toward obese people

Hooper, Nic; Crumpton, Alison; Robinson, Michael; Meier, Brian

Abstract

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. In implicit personality theory, people with entity views or a fixed mindset perceive characteristics (e.g., intelligence) as uncontrollable, whereas people with incremental views or a growth mindset perceive characteristics as controllable. In addition to other benefits, the literature sometimes suggests that having a growth mindset will protect against prejudice, which the current two studies examine in terms of negative attitudes toward obese people. Participants (total N = 501) were randomly assigned to complete a questionnaire assessing attitudes toward an obese or nonobese person and a self-theory questionnaire also assessed ideas about body weight. People with a growth mindset, and not fixed mindset, were more likely to have negative attitudes toward obese individuals, pointing to a potential downside of growth mindset in the obesity domain.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 26, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 21, 2018
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 5, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Applied Social Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0021-9029
• Electronic ISSN: 1559-1816
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 488-493
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12528
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/859936
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12528
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Hooper, N., Crumpton, A., Robinson, M. and Meier, B. (2018) A weight-related growth mindset increases negative attitudes toward obese people. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. ISSN 0021-9029], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12528. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
• Contract Date: Aug 22, 2018