The association between implicit theories of personality and the attributional process

The influence of implicit theories of personality (entity vs. incremental t heorists; see Dweck, Chiu and Hong, 1995) on the stages of the Sequential O perations Model of attribution (Gilbert, Pelham, and Krull, 1988) was inves tigated. Two hundred eighty Norwegian participants were given a Norwegian t ranslation of the implicit personality theories measure. Participants then read two essays, one advocating the pro-life position and the other advocat ing the pro-choice position on the abortion issue. The essay positions were ostensibly assigned rather than freely chosen by the author. After each es say, participants were asked to rate the essay position and the true attitu de of the author. Entity and incremental theorists showed no differences in their ratings of the essay position; however, entity theorists made signif icantly stronger correspondent inferences about the author's attitude than did incremental theorists. These results support the contention that entity theorists engage in less attributional correction than incremental theoris ts.