Differential use of person information in decisions about guilt versus innocence: The role of implicit theories

The authors hypothesize that different people would use information differe ntly in their social decision making depending on their implicit theory abo ut human character traits. Past research has shown that entity theorists (w ho believe traits are fixed entities) tend to make more rapid global trait judgments and to accord traits greater weight in explaining behavior as com pared to incremental theorists (who believe traits are more malleable quali ties). This article examines how potentially trait-relevant information mig ht influence the decision making (verdicts in a fictitious murder case) of entity versus incremental theorists. Results from three studies showed that such information (e.g, the defendant's dress at the crime) had a marked ef fect on entity theorists' verdicts but little effect on incremental theoris ts' verdicts. In addition, entity theorists were more likely than increment al theorists to request additional character information. Implications for the role of implicit theories in social decision making are explored.