PII] S90360656"87#999277 SOCIAL COMPARISON DURING POLITICAL TRANSITION] INTERACTION OF ENTITY VERSUS INCREMENTAL BELIEFS AND SOCIAL IDENTITIES

ABSTRACT [ The relation between intergroup perceptions and people|s implicit theories of the malleability of human attributes or character was examined [ We predicted that people who believe that human attributes are _xed "entity theorists# may also view a group as an entity and thus would rely on trait!based dimensions in social comparison to achieve group distinctiveness [ By contrast \ people who believe that human attributes are malleable "incremental theorists # may focus on the dynamic aspects of social groups "e[g[ \ group goals # and thus would be less likely to rely on trait!based dimensions in social comparison [ Moreover \ such differential tendency was expected to become more salient as the day of the handover approached [ These predictions were tested in a longitudinal study conducted in Hong Kong during the 0886 political transition [ Implicit theories \ social identities and group categorization strategies of 131 university students were assessed _rst in March \ 0885 \ and then in September \ 0885 and March \ 0886 [ The _ndings supported our predictions and were discussed in terms of their implications for intergroup relations [ 0888 Elsevier Science Ltd [ All rights reserved[ KEY WORDS [ Social identi_cation \ social comparison \ implicit theories \ political transitio