LAY DISPOSITIONISM AND IMPLICIT THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Lay dispositionism refers to lay people's tendency to use traits as th e basic unit of analysis in social perception (L. Ross & R. E. Nisbett , 1991). Five studies explored the relation between the practices indi cative of lay dispositionism and people's implicit theories about the nature of personal attributes. As predicted, compared with those who b elieved that personal attributes are malleable (incremental theorists) , those who believed in fixed traits (entity theorists) used traits or trait-relevant information to make stronger future behavioral predict ions (Studies 1 and 2) and made stronger trait inferences from behavio r (Study 3). Moreover, the relation between implicit theories and lay dispositionism was found in both the United States (a more individuali stic culture) and Hong Kong (a more collectivistic culture), suggestin g this relation to be generalizable across cultures (Study 4). Finally , an experiment in which implicit theories were manipulated provided p reliminary evidence for the possible causal role of implicit theories in lay dispositionism (Study 5).