People differ in whether they believe that human nature is stable or dynamic, and these beliefs have been shown to have important consequences for how people think about and interact with others. Recent studies suggest that different implicit beliefs about the malleability of traits have important implications for the formation of and belief in the accuracy of stereotypes. People who believe that traits are unchangeable are more likely to express belief in existing stereotypes and to form new stereotypes. These individuals are also likely to ignore behavioral information indicating that stereotypes are erroneous or are not descriptive of an individual member of a stereotyped group. These findings suggest that people's implicit theories will affect how stereotype-inconsistent information is processed. If minimal stereotype-inconsistent information is encountered (because stereotype-inconsistent information either is rare or is distributed across multiple group members), it is expected that individuals who believe that traits are unchangeable entities will not show modification of their stereotypes. If substantial stereotype-inconsistent information is encountered (because stereotype-inconsistent information either is frequent or is concentrated within a subset of group members), it is expected that these individuals will form subtypes -- cognitive representations nested within the general category that preserve stereotype beliefs about the general category. In contrast, individuals who believe that traits are changeable are expected to modify their stereotypes in proportion to the amount of stereotype-inconsistent information they encounter. It is also suggested that presenting information about the goals or motivations of targets might reverse this typical pattern and facilitate the formation of subtypes by individuals who believe that traits are malleable. In some studies, implicit theories will be altered for a short term rather than simply measured, allowing a test of whether implicit theories play a causal role in the processing of stereotype-relevant information. In sum, it is expected that the proposed experiments will identify a variable that moderates the impact of stereotype-inconsistent information on perceptions of groups, simultaneously increasing our understanding of the conditions under which stereotypes can be changed and of the impact of perceptions of human malleability on judgments and behavior.
