The Influence of Implicit Self-Theories on Causal Inferences about Superstitions and Consequences on Subsequent Tasks

When people succeed in a challenging task after using a product associated with a good luck superstition cue, will they infer that their superstitious consumption is a key reason for their success? We found that entity theorists (but not incremental theorists) tend to attribute their success to their superstitious consumption (studies 1, 2, and 3). Moreover, we found that such causal inferences create negative consequences on subsequent tasks, which vary depending on whether people can continue to engage in superstitious consumption. Specifically, entity theorists tend to feel a weaker sense of self-efficacy toward a subsequent task if they cannot engage in the same superstitious consumption as in the prior task (study 2). Moreover, if they continue to engage in the same superstitious consumption as in the prior task, entity theorists reduce their effort on the subsequent task (study 3).