Is your health malleable or fixed? The influence of implicit theories on health-related attitudes and behaviour

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

“…First, it would have been helpful to also include a measure of control beliefs. As outlined in the introduction, both constructs—implicit theories and control beliefs—are closely connected (Dweck, 2012), and prior research has shown that the influence of implicit theories on health outcomes is mediated via stronger perceived internal control (Schreiber et al., 2020). Further studies could measure control beliefs to test whether implicit theories have a direct effect on blame attributions and outcome expectancy or whether these effects are mediated via changes in internal control beliefs.…”

“…Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the two between‐subjects conditions: they either read a fictitious newspaper article in which health was described as a malleable quality that can be changed (incremental condition) or as a fixed quality that is mostly controlled by genes (entity condition). These articles have been successfully used to manipulate implicit theories of health in previous studies (Schreiber et al., 2020). Following the article, participants were asked three true‐or‐false questions about the article to assess their comprehension of it.…”

“…To test whether the manipulation was successful, participants answered six items about their implicit theories of health (e.g., “No matter who you are, you can significantly change your own health”, see Schreiber et al., 2020). Answers were given on a 7‐point Likert scale anchored from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ).…”

“…More recently, researchers have addressed implicit theories about health in general (Bunda & Busseri, 2019; John‐Henderson et al., 2021; Schreiber et al., 2020; Thomas et al., 2019). This research found that an incremental theory of health—believing that health can change—is related to stronger intentions to engage in health‐promoting behaviors (Bunda & Busseri, 2019; Thomas et al., 2019), to the frequency of performing health‐promoting behaviors (Schreiber et al., 2020), and to higher levels of physical activity and a lower body mass index (John‐Henderson et al., 2021). These results are promising, as they imply that interventions aiming at changing people's general implicit theories of health (compared to health‐specific implicit theories) may serve as an important leverage point for multiple health behavior change.…”

Different Domains of Dengue Research in Malaysia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Questionnaire-Based Studies

“…An effective method of delivering dengue information in rural areas would be a community-based health education delivered by nearby health center outreach activities and health campaigns as demonstrated amongst rural population in Cambodia [ 99 ]. However, the outcome from the previous study recommended that a more persuasive approach, such as modelling of performing the desired behaviours or relating their personal sufferings due to their attitude and practices, should be incorporated in health education as it could form better confidence amongst respondents [ 141 ]. Additionally, health education could be conducted by healthcare providers to provide dengue-related speeches in formal or non-formal religious lecture sessions in religious centres, such as mosques, churches, or temples, as it has been shown to provide a similar opportunity for increasing dengue awareness in Indonesia [ 83 ].…”