Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

I Can Do That: The Impact Of Implicit Theories On Leadership Role Model Effectiveness, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette, Audrey N. Innella

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research investigates the role of implicit theories in influencing the effectiveness of successful role models in the leadership domain. Across two studies, we test the prediction that incremental theorists (‘leaders are made’) compared to entity theorists (‘leaders are born’) will respond more positively to being presented with a role model before undertaking a leadership task. In Study 1, measuring people’s naturally occurring implicit theories of leadership, we showed that after being primed with a role model, incremental theorists reported greater leadership confidence and less anxious-depressed affect than entity theorists following the leadership task. In Study 2, we demonstrated the …