Not such a complainer anymore: Confrontation that signals a growth mindset can attenuate backlash.

Abstract

We report the first investigation of whether observers draw information about mindsets from behavior, specifically prejudice confrontation. We tested two questions across 10 studies (N = 3,168). First, would people who observe someone confront a biased comment (vs. remain silent) see them as endorsing more growth (vs. fixed) mindsets about prejudice and bias? If so, would the growth mindset perceptions that arise from confrontation (vs. remaining silent) attenuate the backlash that observers exhibit against confronters? We investigated these questions using scenarios (Studies 1, 2a-b, 4, 5a-d), naturalistic confrontations of national, race, and gender stereotypes reported retrospectively (Study 3), and an in-person laboratory experiment of actual confrontations of racial bias (Study 6). Correlational and experimental methods yielded support for our core hypotheses: People spontaneously imbue someone who confronts a biased comment with more growth mindset beliefs about prejudice and bias (Studies 1, 2a-b, 4, 6), regardless of whether participants observe the confrontation (Studies 1, 2a-b, 5a-d) or are being confronted themselves (Studies 2a-4, 6). The growth mindset perceptions arising from these confrontations suppress backlash, assessed by classic interpersonal perceptions (Studies 4-5) and judgments of interpersonal warmth and willingness to interact again in the future (Study 6), both when the confronter was a target of the biased behavior (Studies 1-5), and when they were an ally (Study 6), in both correlational studies (Study 3-4) and when growth mindset (about personality, Study 5; about prejudice, Study 6) was manipulated, confirming causality. We discuss implications for the study of mindsets, confrontation, and intergroup relations.

The role of trust in reducing confrontation-related social costs.

“…However, future research on trust and construal is needed to test this argument empirically. For instance, recent research shows that people imbue confronters with a growth mindset about prejudice and bias, which reduces confrontation's social costs and other forms of backlash (Rattan et al, 2023). Perhaps, as trust increases, people who are confronted are more likely to perceive that the confronter believes they can change for the better, and this construal is a more proximal cause of reduced negative other-directed affect and social costs.…”

Moral Improvement of Self, Social Relations, and Society

“…However, such nonconfrontational affirmation of the other may be the best one can do if the other is in a poor position to improve or believes that improvement is not possible or preferred. In fact, Kammrath & Dweck (2006) found that incremental theorists (i.e., people who believe that personalities can change and improve) were more likely than entity theorists (i.e., people who believe that personality is fixed) to confront and try to rectify their partner's transgressive behavior in a constructive manner (see also Rattan et al 2023). Because incremental theorists believe that self-improvement is possible, they are able to confront their partners in a way that presumes that the partners can be better.…”

Walking the Tightrope Between Honesty and Harm in Difficult Conversations: A Theory of Honest Engagement Across People, Contexts, and Time

“…For example, performance feedback is expected to elicit embarrassment and self-consciousness in targets but to also foster long-term improvement (Abi-Esber et al, 2022;Levine & Cohen, 2018). Prohibitive employee voice (i.e., raising concerns to superiors at work) is expected to elicit anger and discomfort in supervisors despite having the potential to improve organizational functioning (Bashshur & Oc, 2015;Klaas et al, 2012;Liang et al, 2012;Morrison, 2014;Rattan et al, 2023;Welsh et al, 2022). Discussing grief and death with children is expected to elicit anxiety and fear but also lead to long-term understanding, coping, and trust in parents (Lister & Schwartzman, 2022).…”