Current Directions in Psychological Science, Ahead of Print.
Beliefs about the changeable or stable nature of human attributes, that is, growth or fixed mindsets, act as fundamental frameworks guiding social perception. These mindsets are closely allied with other important beliefs that can be used to sustain and justify, or to mitigate, prejudicial attitudes. In this article, we review our program of research linking growth mindsets to prejudice. First, we present the double-edged-sword model, which outlines why growth mindsets can have the paradoxical effect of both increasing prejudice through blame and decreasing it by undermining social essentialism, defined as the categorization of individuals based on presumed inherent essences. Second, we present the stigma-reduction model, which outlines when growth mindsets serve to directly decrease prejudice. Third, we highlight the implications of this work for prejudice-reduction efforts, emphasizing the need for interventions that not only challenge personal-level beliefs but also seek to transform broader environments.

Current Directions in Psychological Science, Ahead of Print.
A rich storehouse of semantic or world knowledge is a critical developmental and educational achievement. This article summarizes a research program that elucidates a productive or self-generative means of building this knowledge base, namely, self-derivation of knowledge through the integration of separate yet related episodes of new learning. The article highlights features of the research that lend authenticity to the findings, including focus on an important topic, samples that represent relevant target populations, stimuli that reflect the richness of the phenomenon, and descriptions and explanations of individual variability. The authenticity of the research stands to increase its impact and facilitates application of the results beyond the laboratory.