Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Mindsets and stigma

Mindset and stigma:
What role do growth versus fixed mindsets play in prejudice and stigma?

Overview

Two different reactions

Emma has recently started a new job. During lunch, she mentions that she has previously received treatment for a substance-use disorder. One colleague believes that personal characteristics are largely fixed and assumes that Emma will always be unreliable. Another colleague also wonders why Emma did not change her behaviour sooner.

The colleagues' reactions demonstrate how beliefs about changeability may influence stigma. A fixed mindset may encourage stable stereotypes, whereas a growth mindset may create hope for change. However, believing that change is possible can also increase blame when a person is perceived as responsible for not changing.

This chapter examines these competing pathways (see Figure 1)

Growth and fixed mindsets describe whether human characteristics are perceived as changeable or relatively permanent (Molden & Dweck, 2006).
Fixed mindsets may reinforce stigma by encouraging essentialist beliefs, stereotypes and pessimism about people's capacity to change (Levy & Dweck, 1999).
Growth mindsets may weaken essentialism and encourage positive social contract, but they may also increase personal blame when a stigmatised characteristic is considered controllable (Hoyt & Burntt, 2020).
Understanding these competing effects is important for designing interventions that reduce prejudice without blaming members of stigmatised groups.

Focus questions

What are growth and fixed mindsets, and how are they connected to stigma
How do fixed mindsets contribute to stretyping, essentialism and prejudice
Through what processes growth mindsets reduce prejudice and stigma?
When can growth mindsets reduce prejudice and stigma?
How can mindset research inform effective stigma-reduction interventions

What are growth and fixed mindsets?

Mindsets, also called implicit theories, are beliefs about whether human characteristics are stable or capable or development (Molden & Dweck, 2006).
These beliefs affect how people interpret behaviour, form impressions and predict whether individuals or groups can change.
Mindsets can concern intelligence, personality, prejudice or specific stigmatised characteristics, rather than operating as one universal belief.

Fixed mindsets

A fixed or entity mindset views personal attributes as relatively stable and difficult to change.
Fixed mindsets encourage people to explain behaviour in terms of enduring traits rather than situations and social contexts (Chiu et al., 1977).
These trait-based explanations can encourage rapid judgements and reduce attention to evidence that contradicts an existing stereotype.

Growth mindsets

A growth or incremental mindset views attributes as capable of development through experience, strategies, support and changes in circumstances.
Growth mindsets are associated with mastery-orientated goals and adaptive responses to setbacks (Burnette et al., 2013)

How do fixed mindsets sustain prejudice and stigma?

Fixed mindsets may sustain prejudice by presenting social differences and negative characteristics as natural, stable and unavoidable.
They can influence how people categorise others, interpret group differences and respond to members of stigmatised groups.
Two important mechanisms are psychological essentialism and negative expectations about social interaction.

Essentialism and stereotyping

Psychological essentialism is the belief that members of a social group share an underlying essence that determines their characteristics.
Fixed mindsets may encourage groups to be percieved as uniform, fundamentally different and resistent to change.
Children with static conceptions of people have demonstrated greater stereotype formation than children taught more dynamic conceptions (Levy & Dweck, 1999).
Essentialism may legitimate stigma by making social inequalities and group differences appear inevitable.

Negative expectations and avoidance

Believing that prejudice is fixed may create pessimistic expectations about future intergroup interactions,
Negative expectations can contribute to anxiety, avoidance and reduced willingness to engage with people from different social groups.
Belief's about whether racial bias is changeable predict different strategies during interracial interactions (Neel & Shapiro, 2012).
Avoidance reduces opportunities for positive contact that could otherwise challenge steretypes and prejudice.

How can growth mindsets reduce prejudice and stigma?

Growth mindsets may reduce stigma by challenging the assumption that individuals and groups possess permanent negative qualities.
They can promote situational explanations, expectations of improvement and openness to new information.
Reduced essentialism and more positive intergroup contract are two important stigma-reduction.

Reduced essentialism

Growth mindsets weaken assumptions that behaviour reflects an inherent and unchangeable personal or group essence
Reduced essentialism may make people less likely to generalise one person's behaviour to an entire social group.
Growth beliefs encourage greater attention to circumstances, learning and the possbility of individual variation.
This pathway may reduce prejudice by making stereotypical judgement appear less natural or inevitable (Hoyt & Burnette, 2025).

Positive intergroup contact

Growth mindsets weaken assumptions that behaviour reflects an inherent and unchangeable personal or group essence.
Reduce essentialism may make people less likely to generalise one person's behaviour to an entire social group.
Growth beliefs encourage greater attention to circumstances, learning and the possibility of individual variation.
This pathway may reduce intergroup anxiety and increase willingness to communicate.
Believing that prejudice can change has been associated with improved interracial interactions (Carr et al., 2012).
Growth mindsets have also been associated with stronger intentions to engage in positive interracial contact (Hoyt et al., 2024)

{ {RoundBoxTop|theme=2}} Case study follow-up

Emma's colleague learns that recovery is possible but is influenced by treatment access, social support, discrimination and life circumstances. Instead of assuming that Emma is permanately unrealiable or entirely responsible for her past difficulties, the colleague recognises both her capacity for growth and the barriers she has faced. |}

When can growth mindsets increase stigma?

Growth mindsets are not automatically protective against prejudice because changeability can be interpreted as controllability.
If a characteristic seems controllable, observes may conclude that the person is responsible for developing or continuing to possess it.
Consequently, growth beliefs may reduce stigma through lower essentialism while simultaneously increasing it through greater blame.

Perceived control and personal blame

Growth messages may imply that people should be capable of changing through sufficient effort.
If change does not occur, observers may attribute this to laziness, poor choices or a lack of motivation.
Research on weight stigma found that changeability beliefs could reduce essentialism while also increasing blame (Hoyt et al., 2017).
This combination is described as a "double-edged sword" because the two pathways can produce opposing effects on prejudice (Hoyt & Burnette, 2020).

Structural and situational barriers

Individual effort occurs within social conditions that may either support or restrict opportunities for change.
Poverty, discrimination, treatment access, social support and institutional policies can influence outcomes.
Growth messages that ignore these barriers risk presenting complex stigmatised conditions as matters of individual choice.

How can mindsets inform stigma-reduction interventions?

Mindset research can inform interventions in education, healthcare, workplace and public communication.
Effective interventions should preserve hope and self-efficacy while avoiding messages that intensify blame.
Strategies should address social environments and structural barriers in addition to individual beliefs.

Designing balanced growth messages

Messages should explain that change may be possible through effective strategies, appropriate resources and social support.
They should explicitly distinguish between changeability and complete personal controllability.
Interventions should acknowledge the environmental and structural barriers that can make change difficult.
Balanced messages can promote reduced essentialism without implying that people are solely responsible for their stigmatised circumstances (Hoyt & Burnette, 2025).

Practical applications

Schools can teach students that stereotypes and prejudiced attitudes can be identified, challenged and changed.
Healthcare campaigns can communicate hope about treatment and recovery while acknowledging barriers and avoiding blame.
Workplaces can combine growth-oriented inclusion programs with policies addressing discrimination and unequal opportunities.
Interventions should be evaluated within the particular population and type of stigma rather than assuming that one message will in every context.

Figures

Three-quarters of Australian men and women survey respondents reported that they would be comfortable talking to their partner about mental health problems (figure 2). Around one-sixth (16%) were not sure whether they would be comfortable, and a further ten per cent indicated they would not be comfortable (Mental Heath, 2026).

Learning features

Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.

Feature boxes

Table 1

Aspect	Fixed mindset	Growth mindset
Core belief	Personal and group characteristics are relatively permanent.	Personal characteristics and attitudes can develop or change.
Explanation of behaviour	Emphasises enduring traits and internal characteristics.	Considers learning, circumstances, strategies and social support.
Connection with essentialism	May strengthen beliefs that groups possess an inherent and defining essence.	May weaken beliefs that group differences are natural and permanent.
Effect on stereotypes	May encourage generalisation and stable stereotypical judgements.	May encourage attention to individual differences and new information.
Intergroup expectations	May create pessimism about whether people, prejudice or relationships can improve.	May produce more positive expectations and encourage intergroup contact.
Potential benefit	May reduce blame when a characteristic is perceived as uncontrollable.	May reduce prejudice through lower essentialism and greater expectations for change.
Potential risk	May promote social avoidance and the belief that stigmatised people cannot change.	May increase blame when people are considered responsible for not changing.

Conclusion

Fixed mindsets can sustain prejudice by encouraging essentialism, stereotyping and pessimistic expectations about change.
Growth mindsets can reduce stigma by weakening essentialist beliefs and encouraging positive expectations about individuals and intergroup contact.
However, growth mindsets may increase stigma when changeability is interrupted as personal controllability and responsibility.
The role of mindset is therefore contextual rather than universally positive or negative.
Effective stigma-reduction interventions should promote realistic possibilities for growth while recognising situational and structural barriers.
Overall, growth mindsets are most likely to reduce prejudice when messages combine hope for change with empathy, social support and reduced blame.

References

Burnette, J. L., O'Boyle, E. H., VanEpps, E. M., Pollack, J. M., & Finkel, E. J. (2013). Mind-sets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 139(3), 655–701. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029531

Carr, P. B., Dweck, C. S., & Pauker, K. (2012). “Prejudiced” behavior without prejudice? Beliefs about the malleability of prejudice affect interracial interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 452–471. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028849

Chiu, C., Hong, Y., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.19

Hoyt, C. L., & Burnette, J. L. (2020). Growth mindset messaging in stigma-relevant contexts: Harnessing benefits without costs. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(2), 157–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220941216

Hoyt, C. L., & Burnette, J. L. (2025). How mindsets can mitigate or sustain prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 34(2), 82–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214241301290

Hoyt, C. L., Burnette, J. L., Auster-Gussman, L., Blodorn, A., & Major, B. (2017). The obesity stigma asymmetry model: The indirect and divergent effects of blame and changeability beliefs on antifat prejudice. Stigma and Health, 2(1), 53–65. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000026

Hoyt, C. L., Rafferty, D., Earl, S., & Burnette, J. L. (2024). Growth mindsets of people can promote interracial contact intentions among White Americans via positive expectations and reduced anxiety. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 27(4), 903–924. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302231187262

Levy, S. R., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). The impact of children's static versus dynamic conceptions of people on stereotype formation. Child Development, 70(5), 1163–1180. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00085

Molden, D. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Finding “meaning” in psychology: A lay theories approach to self-regulation, social perception, and social development. American Psychologist, 61(3), 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.61.3.192

Neel, R., & Shapiro, J. R. (2012). Is racial bias malleable? Whites' lay theories of racial bias predict divergent strategies for interracial interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(1), 101–120. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028237

External links

Project Implicit (Harvard University)
Racism, bias, and discrimination (American Psychological Association)

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References

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Rosenberg, B. D., & Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. Motivation Science, 4(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales. Harper & Row.

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Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Mindsets and stigma

Overview

What are growth and fixed mindsets?

Fixed mindsets

Growth mindsets

How do fixed mindsets sustain prejudice and stigma?

Essentialism and stereotyping

Negative expectations and avoidance

How can growth mindsets reduce prejudice and stigma?

Reduced essentialism

Positive intergroup contact

When can growth mindsets increase stigma?

Perceived control and personal blame

Structural and situational barriers

How can mindsets inform stigma-reduction interventions?

Designing balanced growth messages

Practical applications

Figures

Learning features

Conclusion

See also

References

External links

See also

References

External links