To Collaborate or Serve? Effects of Anthropomorphized Brand Roles and Implicit Theories on Consumer Responses

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Han ◽  
Liangyan Wang ◽  
Xiang (Robert) Li

This article extends on the literature regarding brand anthropomorphism and contributes to hospitality and tourism literature by demonstrating that positioning of different anthropomorphic brand roles (partner vs. servant) attracts diverse consumers. Drawing from the results of three experiments in various contexts, we theorize that brand role and consumer implicit theories can interactively influence consumer responses. Specifically, consumers who subscribe to entity theory (vs. incremental theory) express more favorable responses to a brand anthropomorphized as a servant (vs. a partner) than to that as a partner (vs. a servant). Moreover, this study confirms that consumers’ perceived self-efficacy mediates this interaction effect. Findings enrich the hospitality and tourism literature by introducing a matching effect between brand role and implicit theories and offering insightful implications for hospitality and tourism brand managers, especially advertisers, around modifying brand roles based on consumers’ mind-sets.

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-170
Author(s):  
Luna Radević ◽  
Ivona Jerković ◽  
Ilija Milovanović

Implicit theories of intelligence are individual beliefs about the nature of intelligence, which are used on a daily basis as part of self-assessment and assessment of others, and are a significant factor shaping attitudes and behaviors. Research to date suggests that teachers can influence their students' beliefs about intelligence, which in turn affect motivation and achievement. According to Dweck's model, implicit theories of intelligence are a bipolar construct, with two theories at its extremes - the entity theory, which stresses the immutability of intelligence, and the incremental theory, which holds that intelligence can be improved through training and learning. Recent research, however, indicates that these two theories represent distinct, uncorrelated dimensions. The aim of this study was to carry out a psychometric evaluation of the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale (ITIS) and the Mathematics-Oriented Implicit Theory of Intelligence Scale (MOITIS). 228 primary and secondary school teachers in Serbia (87.7% female; average age 42.79 years) took part in the study. The results of factor analysis suggest the existence of two factors on both scales: incremental theory and entity theory. Further analysis showed that both factors of the ITIS and MOITIS scales have satisfactory psychometric properties. Significant differences were detected between primary and secondary school teachers on the ITIS scale. More specifically, among teachers of science subjects, mathematics and medical subjects the attitude that intelligence is a fixed trait is more pronounced than among teachers of the arts, humanities and social sciences.


Author(s):  
Aleksandra Đurović ◽  
Sonja Protić ◽  
Ana Altaras Dimitrijević

Abstract. This study looked into the associations between parents’ implicit theories of intelligence, children’s cognitive aptitude, and children’s tendency to opt for mastery-oriented responses to challenging achievement situations. All child participants ( N = 59, 31 girls; 6;3 – 7;2 years) were individually assessed for cognitive aptitude and mastery orientation, while one of their parents (46 mothers) completed a questionnaire on entity versus incremental beliefs about intelligence. Correlation analyses indicated a statistically significant negative association between parental endorsement of the incremental theory and children’s cognitive aptitude ( r = −.29), as well as between parental endorsement of the entity theory and children’s mastery orientation ( r = −.28). Moreover, two significant canonical functions emerged, one of which was defined by higher parental endorsement of the entity theory along with higher cognitive aptitude and lower mastery orientation of the child, while the second entailed higher parental endorsement of the incremental theory, lower cognitive aptitude of the child, and again, the child’s lower mastery orientation. While confirming the theoretically proposed negative association between parents’ entity beliefs and children’s mastery orientation, the present results challenge a unidimensional conception of implicit theories of intelligence and their assumed independence of cognitive aptitude; moreover, they stimulate several interpretations regarding the psychological mechanisms surrounding children’s lower mastery orientation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Lüftenegger ◽  
Jason A. Chen

Abstract. We reviewed fundamental conceptual issues and the state of research on the definition and assessment of implicit theories. We grappled with the following controversies related to the construct: (a) Are entity theory and incremental theory opposite ends of the same continuum? (b) How can scholars use more sophisticated methodologies to classify individuals into either the entity or incremental theory? (c) Given shifting conceptions of what intelligence is, how can scholars refine the implicit theory of intelligence construct? Given these conceptual issues, we then addressed practical issues related to the assessment of implicit theories. We point to the need for more sophisticated methods such as implicit association tests and the use of virtual environments as more “stealthy” ways to assess the construct.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 952-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneeta Rattan ◽  
Carol S. Dweck

Despite the possible costs, confronting prejudice can have important benefits, ranging from the well-being of the target of prejudice to social change. What, then, motivates targets of prejudice to confront people who express explicit bias? In three studies, we tested the hypothesis that targets who hold an incremental theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people can change) are more likely to confront prejudice than targets who hold an entity theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people have fixed traits). In Study 1, targets’ beliefs about the malleability of personality predicted whether they spontaneously confronted an individual who expressed bias. In Study 2, targets who held more of an incremental theory reported that they would be more likely to confront prejudice and less likely to withdraw from future interactions with an individual who expressed prejudice. In Study 3, we manipulated implicit theories and replicated these findings. By highlighting the central role that implicit theories of personality play in targets’ motivation to confront prejudice, this research has important implications for intergroup relations and social change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunhee Park ◽  
Carolyn M. Callahan ◽  
Ji Hoon Ryoo

The psychometric qualities of the six- and eight-item implicit theories of intelligence scales that Dweck suggested were compared using a confirmatory factor analysis with data from 239 gifted students (100 students in Grades 5–7, 139 students in Grades 8–11). The results indicate that the six-item scale fits the data better than the eight-item scale. The factor reliabilities of data from the six-item scale were .853 for the entity theory and .878 for the incremental theory. We found evidence for measurement invariance across age and gender using measurement and structural invariance tests. Using the scale to investigate the beliefs about intelligence of gifted students and the association between their beliefs about intelligence and goal orientations, we found that the higher the incremental theory held by gifted students, the higher the learning goals they tend to pursue. Older students had a greater tendency to hold an entity theory than younger students.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivar Bråten ◽  
Andreas Lien ◽  
John Nietfeld

Abstract. In two experiments with Norwegian undergraduates and one experiment with US undergraduates, we examined the potential effects of brief task instructions aligned with incremental and entity views of intelligence on students’ performance on a rational thinking task. The research demonstrated that even brief one-shot task instructions that deliver a mindset about intelligence intervention can be powerful enough to affect students’ performance on such a task. This was only true for Norwegian male students, however. Moreover, it was the task instruction aligned with an entity theory of intelligence that positively affected Norwegian male students’ performance on the rational thinking task, with this unanticipated finding speaking to the context- and culture-specificity of implicit theories of intelligence interventions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Eunjin Seo ◽  
Hae Yeon Lee ◽  
Jeremy P. Jamieson ◽  
Harry Reis ◽  
Robert A. Josephs ◽  
...  

Abstract Adolescents who hold an entity theory of personality – the belief that people cannot change – are more likely to report internalizing symptoms during the socially stressful transition to high school. It has been puzzling, however, why a cognitive belief about the potential for change predicts symptoms of an affective disorder. The present research integrated three models – implicit theories, hopelessness theories of depression, and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat – to shed light on this issue. Study 1 replicated the link between an entity theory and internalizing symptoms by synthesizing multiple datasets (N = 6,910). Study 2 examined potential mechanisms underlying this link using 8-month longitudinal data and 10-day diary reports during the stressful first year of high school (N = 533, 3,199 daily reports). The results showed that an entity theory of personality predicted increases in internalizing symptoms through tendencies to make fixed trait causal attributions about the self and maladaptive (i.e., “threat”) stress appraisals. The findings support an integrative model whereby situation-general beliefs accumulate negative consequences for psychopathology via situation-specific attributions and appraisals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Boray Tek ◽  
Kristin S. Benli ◽  
Ezgi Deveci

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