Blaming others for their illness: The influence of health‐related implicit theories on blame and social support

Abstract

Some people believe that their own health is rather malleable and can be changed (incremental theory), whereas other people believe that their health is relatively fixed (entity theory). Previous research suggests that individuals who hold a strong incremental theory of health have more positive health‐related attitudes and engage in more health‐promoting behaviors in everyday life. However, less is known about the interpersonal effects of an incremental theory of health. A strong incremental theory of health could have detrimental consequences, such as increasing blame and reducing social support towards others who are ill. To test this, two studies (Study 1: N = 433, Study 2: N = 397) were conducted in which implicit theories of health (incremental vs. entity) were experimentally manipulated, and participants were presented with vignettes describing individuals suffering from different illnesses. The dependent variables included blame, sympathy, outcome expectancy, and social support. Study 1 demonstrated that an incremental theory of health increased blame towards people suffering from an illness, regardless of whether a physical or mental illness was presented, and blame indirectly attenuated social support. Study 2 showed that an incremental theory increased outcome expectancy, which indirectly amplified social support. In sum, this research suggests that an incremental theory of health may decrease social support via blame, but increases in outcome expectancy may counteract this effect.

Do Mindsets Shape Intentions to Help Those in Need? Unraveling the Paradoxical Effects of Mindsets of Poverty on Helping Intentions

“…Further, we consistently observed that blame was negatively linked to helping intentions and that outcome expectancy was positively linked to helping intentions. As a consequence, blame and outcome expectancy were parallel mediators of the relationship between mindsets and helping intentions, as predicted by the DUPA-Model (Dohle et al, 2022). As these two mediators act in opposite directions, they can cancel each other out, resulting in total null effects, as observed across all studies.…”

“…Our findings contribute to the literature on mindsets by highlighting the existence and relevance of their interpersonal consequences. Going beyond earlier work that demonstrated such consequences in the domain of health or education (e.g., Dohle et al, 2022;Yeager et al, 2022), our work demonstrated such consequences in the domain of poverty, an area that has only recently caught the attention of mindset researchers (Zhao, Chen, et al, 2021;. Furthermore, going beyond simply demonstrating such interpersonal MINDSETS OF POVERTY 20 consequences, we tested a specific social-cognitive model (the DUPA-Model, Dohle et al, 2022).…”

“…Participants further reported how much they blame poor people for their situation (three items, e.g., "It is often people's own fault when they are poor. "; 1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree; α = .97, adapted from Dohle et al, 2022). Participants then read about a fictional charity called We Tackle Poverty (WTP).…”

“…Participants then indicated whether they believe that helping poor people (through that charity) would be effective (i.e., outcome expectancy; three items, e.g., "How likely is it that a family who receives help from WTP will be able to rise out MINDSETS OF POVERTY 10 of poverty? "; 1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much; α = .92, adapted from Dohle et al, 2022) and their intentions to help poor people through that charity (four items, e.g., "I would be willing to donate money to WTP"; 1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree; α = .85). Participants also completed an attention check ("If you read this, choose 'Strongly disagree'") and provided demographic information (age, gender, political orientation, race/ethnicity, income, education, and subjective social class).…”

“…But why would mindsets of poverty be related to helping poor people? For our theorizing, we here adopt the recently proposed dual pathway model of interpersonal consequences of mindsets (which we refer to as the DUPA-Model), which has been successfully tested in the domain of health mindsets (Dohle et al, 2022). This model suggests two different paths linking mindsets to helping behavior towards people in need (for a related dual pathway model focusing on stigma, see Burnette, Hoyt, Dweck, et al, 2017).…”