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Psychology Research, ISSN 2159-5542
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6, 369-375
Dichotomous Thinking Leads to Entity Theories
of Human Ability*
Atsushi Oshio
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Previous research has indicated that dichotomous thinkers have stereotypic and rigid views of others. This study
focuses on the world-view of dichotomous thinkers from the perspective of entity vs. incremental theory. Study 1
explored the relationship between dichotomous thinking and the IPTM (implicit person theory measure) (Dweck,
Chiu, & Hong, 1995). Two hundred and forty-eight Japanese undergraduates completed the DTI (dichotomous
thinking inventory) and the IPTM. A significant positive relationship between the variables was found. Study 2
explored the relationship between the DTI and another measure assessing the degree to which participants endorsed
implicit theories. Three hundred and eleven Japanese undergraduates completed the DTI and the SITI (scale of
implicit theory of intelligence) (Mori, Ishida, Shimizu, & Tominaga, 2001). Factor analysis of the SITI revealed
four factors: smartness, efficiency, clear-headedness, and grade and knowledge. Correlation analyses indicated that
people who think dichotomously tend to deem human abilities to be more innate.
Keywords: dichotomous thinking, implicit theory of intelligence, stereotype, human ability
Introduction
We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one
kind that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as
wholly black or white.
Eric Hoffer
Dichotomous thinking is the propensity to think of things in terms of binary opposition, such as “black or
white”, “good or bad”, or “all or nothing”. This thinking style can be viewed as the tendency to get stuck in
either the thesis or the antithesis, unable to move toward synthesis (Linehan, 1993). In other words,
dichotomous thinking is an “either-or” kind of thinking and not an “and” kind of thinking (Neuringer,
1961).
Dichotomous information and judgments can be observed in daily life. In political settings, some people
enthusiastically support politicians who give simple and dichotomous messages. Defendants plead either guilty
or not guilty to the charges against them in the criminal court system. A great deal of simplified, such as
“us-or-them”, “good-or-bad” and “useful-or-not” information is reported by the mass media everyday (Mori,
2006), and some people prefer this kind of news.
*This research uses reanalyzed data from a poster presented at the ISSID 2011 (International Society for the Study of Individual
Differences), London UK, at the joint Conference of the 19th JSRE (Japan Society for Research on Emotions), and at the 20th
JSPP (Japan Society of Personality Psychology), Kyoto, Japan.
Atsushi Oshio, Ph.D., associate professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University.
D
DAVID PUBLISHING
DICHOTOMOUS THINKING LEADS TO ENTITY THEORIES OF HUMAN ABILITY
370
Some people prefer thinking dichotomously, but others do not. Individual differences can be observed in
this thinking style. Byrne, Cooper, and Fairburn (2004) developed the “dichotomous thinking in eating disorder
scale” to assess individual difference in dichotomous thinking, especially in attitudes towards food and food
intake. The DTI (dichotomous thinking inventory) was developed for general use in psychological studies
rather than specifically for eating problems (Oshio, 2009a). The DTI has good internal consistency and
test-retest reliability, and good validity as determined by correlations with other self-measures and
characteristics reported by respondents’ friends. Recently, Oshio (2012) reported that individuals who score
high on the DTI prefer rock, alternative, soul, funk and heavy-metal music, and dislike classical music. This
study suggests that this thinking style could influence daily activities.
Dichotomous thinking is also linked to negative psychological outcomes in specific contexts. For example,
eating disorders (Byrne, Allen, Dove, Watt, & Nathan, 2008; Byrne, Cooper, & Fairburn, 2004), suicide
attempts (Neuringer, 1961), and personality disorders (Oshio, in press) are related with such thinking styles.
Oshio (2009b) examined the relationship between individual differences in thinking dichotomously and
participants’ evaluation of their degree of attraction to women and reported that this thinking style lowered
participants’ evaluations of less-attractive women. The results indicated that people who think dichotomously
tend to undervalue an individual when they perceive his/her negative aspects.
An individual’s implicit theory of intelligence is known to affect his/her goals, efforts, and achievements.
People who believe that others’ traits are fixed are called “entity theorists”, whereas “incremental theorists” are
those who believe that others’ traits are malleable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). It has also been shown that implicit
theories predict differences in the degree of social stereotyping (Levy, Stroessner, & Dweck, 1998). Recently,
Shih (2011) reported that maladaptive perfectionism, which is associated with being overly concerned with how
others evaluate oneself and worrying over making mistakes, is positively related with holding an entity theory of
intelligence among Taiwanese students. This indicates that a rigid thinking style may relate to the entity theory of
intelligence. However, no previous studies have explored relationships between dichotomous thinking and
implicit theories. If dichotomous thinking leads to an inflexible view of others (Oshio, 2009b), it is hypothesized
that this thinking style and the entity theory of human abilities are positively related to each other.
In this paper, two studies are described in which the relationship between dichotomous thinking and
implicit theories is explored to clarify the link between dichotomous thinking and the tendency to judge others
stereotypically.
Study 1
In Study 1, relationships between dichotomous thinking and the degree to which participants endorsed
entity theories as assessed using the IPTM (implicit person theory measure) (Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995) are
explored.
Method
Participants. A total of 248 Japanese undergraduates (82 males and 166 females) participated in Study 1.
Their average age was 20.0 years (SD = 1.7).
Materials
Dichotomous thinking. The DTI (Oshio, 2009a) was used to assess the degree of each individual
dichotomous thinking. The DTI consists of three subscales: The “preference for dichotomy” subscale indicates
DICHOTOMOUS THINKING LEADS TO ENTITY THEORIES OF HUMAN ABILITY
371
a thinking style that is drawn towards distinctness and clarity rather than ambiguity and obscuration; The
“dichotomous belief” subscale indicates a manner of thinking that considers all things in the world as being
capable of division into two types, such as inseparable and indivisible; The “profit-and-loss thinking” subscale
indicates motivation by an urge to gain access to actual benefits and to avoid disadvantages. The DTI was
administered using a 6-point scale (1 = “Strongly disagree”; 6 = “Strongly agree”). Cronbach’s alpha ranged
from 0.68 (profit-and-loss) to 0.82 (total of the DTI) in Study 1.
IPTM. In order to measure entity versus incremental theory of the person as a whole, the IPTM
(Dweck et al., 1995) was used. The measure consists of three items: “The kind of person someone is, is
something basic about them, and it cannot be changed very much”; “People can do things differently, but
the important parts of whom are cannot really be changed”; “Everyone is a certain kind of person, and
there is not much that they can do really change that”. The three items were translated into Japanese in this
study. Respondents indicated their agreement with these statements on a 6-point scale from 1 = “Strongly
disagree” to 6 = “Strongly agree”. Higher scores indicate stronger entity theory. Cronbach’s alpha was
0.74 in this study.
Results
Table 1 shows the correlation coefficients between dichotomous thinking and the IPTM. The total score of
the DTI had a significant positive correlation with the IPTM (r = 0.29, p < 0.001). Preference for dichotomy
and dichotomous belief had a low but significant positive relationship with the IPTM (r = 0.19, p = 0.003; r =
0.15, p = 0.02, respectively). Profit-and-loss thinking and the IPTM are moderately related to each other (r =
0.34, p < 0.001).
Table 1
Correlations Between DTI and IPTM
DTI
Total Preference for dichotomy Dichotomous belief Profit-and-loss thinking
IPTM 0.29*** 0.19
** 0.15
* 0.34
***
Notes. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
Table 2 shows a hierarchical multiple regression analysis of the IPTM as a dependent variable. After
controlling for participants’ age and sex, only profit-and-loss thinking had an effect on the IPTM.
Table 2
Effects of Dichotomous Thinking on IPTM
IPTM
Step 1
Age 0.04
Sex 0.04
R2 0.01
Step 2
Preference for dichotomy -0.03
Dichotomous belief 0.06
Profit-and-loss thinking 0.33***
Delta R2 0.11
***
R2 0.12***
Note. *** p < 0.001.
DICHOTOMOUS THINKING LEADS TO ENTITY THEORIES OF HUMAN ABILITY
372
Study 2
Study 2 focuses on some domain-specific factors of implicit theories and explores their relationships with
dichotomous thinking.
Method
Participants. The participants were 311 Japanese undergraduates (130 males and 181 females). Their
average age was 19.4 years (SD = 1.3).
Materials
Dichotomous thinking. The DTI (Oshio, 2009a) was used as in Study 1. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from
0.74 (preference) to 0.87 (total of the DTI).
Implicit theories. In order to assess participants’ implicit theories of intelligence, the SITI (scale of
implicit theory of intelligence) (Mori, Ishida, Shimizu, & Tominaga, 2001) was used. The SITI consists of 20
items regarding human’s ability, for example, “having a good memory”, “working efficiently”, and “being
decisive”. The SITI was administered using a 6-point scale (1 = “Not inborn ability at all”; 6 = “Entirely inborn
ability”), and a high score indicated that the participant ias an entity theorist.
Table 3
Factor Structure of the Scale of Implicit Theory of Intelligence
I II III IV
Smartness
18. Being decisive 0.87 -0.07 0.10 -0.14
16. Having a quick wit 0.72 -0.02 0.10 0.00
19. Not wasting time 0.69 -0.02 -0.15 0.12
17. Looking at things from various angles 0.66 0.04 -0.01 0.04
20. Having good insight 0.59 -0.02 0.29 -0.08
14. Being a good listener 0.47 0.25 -0.14 0.10
Efficiency
5. Working efficiently -0.11 0.83 0.12 -0.01
6. Talking systematically 0.08 0.82 0.02 -0.05
7. Leading different opinions to consensus 0.15 0.66 0.03 0.01
4. Being conversational 0.19 0.52 0.06 -0.02
1. Being a good writer -0.10 0.45 -0.06 0.14
Clear-headedness
8. Having a good memory -0.13 -0.01 0.82 -0.09
13. Having a sharp mind 0.21 0.04 0.59 -0.04
9. Making a quick judgment 0.12 0.14 0.59 0.05
12. Grasping the gist of a discussion -0.05 0.22 0.52 0.23
15. Being good with numbers 0.14 -0.24 0.37 0.36
Grade and
knowledge
11. Having a good record at school -0.14 -0.10 0.25 0.65
3. Having a good vocabulary -0.04 0.24 -0.19 0.50
10. Having something interesting to talk about 0.27 0.10 -0.22 0.49
2. Studying hard 0.04 0.10 0.07 0.37
Inter-factor
correlations
I - 0.70 0.61 0.46
II - - 0.50 0.48
III - - - 0.34
IV - - - -
DICHOTOMOUS THINKING LEADS TO ENTITY THEORIES OF HUMAN ABILITY
373
Results
Factor analysis of the implicit theories. In order to explore the structure of the SITI, an exploratory
maximum likelihood factor analysis with promaxrotation of the implicit theory was conducted for the 20 items
(see Table 3). A four-factor solution seemed to be appropriate because four of the eigenvalues were more than
1.00: 7.72, 1.67, 1.40, and 1.16, in descending order. These four factors accounted for 49.7% of the total
variance.
Factor 1 included six items, such as “being decisive”, “having a quick wit”, and “not wasting time”. These
items conjure the image of person who is smart, astute, and shrewd, so this factor was named “smartness”.
Factor 2 consisted of five items, such as “working efficiently”, “talking systematically”, and “leading different
opinions to consensus”. The emphasis in these items was on the ability to perform any task successfully
without wasting energy, so this factor was termed “efficiency”. Factor 3 included “having a good memory”,
“having a sharp mind”, “making a quick judgment” and “grasping the gist of a discussion”. These items
indicate a person’s intelligence and having a good head on one’s shoulders. This factor was termed
“Clear-headedness”. Factor 4 included “having a good record at school”, “having a good vocabulary” and
“having something interesting to talk about”, and was termed “grade and knowledge”. Following the factor
analysis, the scores of the four factors of the SITI were calculated.
Table 4
Correlations Between DTI and SITI
SITI1 DTI
Total Preference for dichotomy Dichotomous belief Profit-and-loss thinking
Smartness 0.23*** 0.21
*** 0.24
*** 0.11
*
Efficiency 0.15** 0.14
* 0.18
** 0.05
Clear-headedness 0.18** 0.21
*** 0.06 0.17
**
Grade and knowledge 0.09 0.06 0.20*** -0.03
Notes. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; 1 A high score indicates stronger entity theory.
Table 5
Regression Effects of the DTI on the SITI
SITI1
Smartness Efficiency Clear-headedness Grade and knowledge
beta
Step 1
Age -0.06 -0.09 -0.02 -0.06
Sex 0.10 0.09 0.06 0.13*
R2 0.01 0.02* 0.01 0.02
*
Step 2
Preference for
dichotomy 0.20* 0.16
* 0.19
* 0.08
Dichotomous
belief 0.17** 0.14
* -0.06 0.21
***
Profit-and-loss
thinking -0.11 -0.13* 0.06 -0.19
**
Delta R2 0.04* 0.04
** 0.04
** 0.06
*
R2 0.07 0.06** 0.05
** 0.07
***
Notes. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; 1 A high score means thinking them as entity theory.
DICHOTOMOUS THINKING LEADS TO ENTITY THEORIES OF HUMAN ABILITY
374
Relationship between dichotomous thinking and implicit theories. Table 4 shows correlation
coefficients between the DTI scores and the SITI. The DTI total score, preference for dichotomy and
dichotomous belief had positive correlations with implicit theories, indicating that people who had this thinking
style tended to be entity theorists.
Table 5 shows hierarchical multiple regression analyses of the implicit theory factors as dependent
variables. After controlling for participants’ age and sex, the preference for dichotomy had a significant
positive effect on smartness, efficiency and clear-headedness. Dichotomous belief positively influenced
smartness, efficiency, and grade and knowledge. On the other hand, profit-and-loss thinking had a significant
negative effect on efficiency and grade and knowledge.
Discussion and Conclusions
As anticipated, correlation analyses indicated that people who think dichotomously tend to deem human
abilities to be more innate. In Study 1, dichotomous thinking, especially the profit-and-loss thinking subscale,
seems to lead to the entity theory of the person as a whole (Dweck et al., 1995). In Study 2, this thinking style
was found to be related to the entity theory of specific human abilities. These results suggest that dichotomous
thinking is linked to viewing others in unchangeable, fixed, and stereotypic ways.
In Study 2, the factor analysis of the SITI revealed a four-factor structure of the implicit theory of
intelligence. Interestingly, profit-and-loss thinking works as a suppressor variable to negative effects on the
entity theory of efficiency and grade and knowledge.
What is the reason for the incongruity in the effects of profit-and-loss thinking on implicit theories? Such
thinking represents focusing on one’s own benefits and advantages, and people with this thinking style may
avoid disadvantages. The factors of efficiency and grade and knowledge both involve the ability to do any task
successfully without wasting energy. These may link more directly to advantages in everyday life than do
smartness and clear-headedness, especially among university students. For these reasons, students who highly
value profit-and-loss may consider efficiency and grade and knowledge to be malleable and flexible.
From this perspective, it is necessary to assess the importance that people place on the four abilities of the
SITI. Furthermore, future studies need to focus on the mediating effects of an implicit-theory thinking style and
social stereotyping.
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