The relationship between the costs of feedback seeking and the implicit theory of intelligence

This study examined the relationship between the costs of feedback seeking and the implicit theory of intelligence, a belief about the variability of ability.Feedback is widely regarded as an essential resource for learning and self-improvement, yet individuals often hesitate to seek it because of anticipated social or psychological costs.Based on a pilot survey to explore such costs of seeking feedback in Japan, we investigated whether undergraduates' implicit theory of intelligence was correlated with multiple aspects of feedback concerns in a hypothetical situation (Study 1, N =198) and daily life (Study 2, N =196).Exploratory factor analysis (Study 1) indicated that the costs of feedback seeking consist of seven distinct factors, highlighting the multidimensional nature of such concerns.In particular, the analyses showed that self-presentation concerns and ego threat are separate constructs, and this distinction was also confirmed in the confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2).Moreover, results consistently indicated that the fixed theory of intelligence was correlated with concerns about self-presentation, but not with other types of costs, such as the fear of failure.The discussion considers the influence of cultural background on the result, the theoretical contributions to motivation research, and applied implications for designing supportive educational and organizational environment.