Social Cognition, Vol. 32, No. 5, 2014, pp.

466483
BURKLEY ET AL.

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT

The Ugly Duckling Effect: Examining Fixed

versus Malleable Beliefs about Beauty
Melissa Burkley, Edward Burkley, S. Paul Stermer, Angela Andrade, Angela C. Bell,
and Jessica Curtis
Oklahoma State University

Storybook tales, movies, and beauty magazines often communicate the

message that beauty is malleable. Malleable beliefs are generally found
to be beneficial, but this is not the case in the beauty domain. Across two
studies, we found that the beauty is malleable belief puts women (but
not men) at risk for harmful appearance concerns, such as basing their selfworth on physical attractiveness, increased appearance anxiety, and increased interest in cosmetic surgery. These results were found when beauty
beliefs were measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2). Thus, the message that beauty is malleable has a potentially harmful effect on womens
lives. This work also suggests that the typical finding that malleable beliefs
are beneficial may reverse when the domain in question has unattainable
standards.

In the classic fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, a homely looking duckling is mocked
by his fellow barnyard animals because of his unattractive appearance (Andersen,
1844). However, much to the surprise of himself and others, the duckling grows
into the most beautiful bird of all: a swan. The message communicated by this
beloved story is simple: Beauty is malleable. Just because someone is born unattractive does not mean they cannot grow up to be beautiful like a swan.
But this beauty is malleable message does not just exist between the pages of
a childrens book. Marketing campaigns like Maybellines famous, Maybe shes
born with it, maybe its Maybelline, encourage women to reject the idea of inherent beauty and instead focus on what women can do to improve their beauty. This
message that less attractive girls can become beautiful is also commonly seen in
movies (Shes All That, Never Been Kissed) and celebrity magazine interviews with
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Melissa Burkley, Department of
Psychology, 116 North Murray, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078; E-mail: melissa.
burkley@okstate.edu.

2014 Guilford Publications, Inc.

466

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 467

the likes of Eva Longoria (Allure, 2006), Beyonc (Glamour, 2009), and Victorias
Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Harpers Bazaar UK, 2011). But is the
beauty is malleable message a healthy one? The present studies were designed
to examine this question.

Striving for Unattainable Beauty

In modern society, women are constantly bombarded with images of idealized
beauty that emphasize youth, thinness, and White features (Brownell, 1991; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997); however, only a small percentage of women actually
meet this beauty ideal (Thompson & Stice, 2001). To make matters worse, the majority of media images involve photoshopping, retouching, and body reshaping.
So for nearly all women, the beauty ideal represents an unattainable standard
(Brownell, 1991; Cusumano & Thompson, 1997; Wolf, 2002).
Several theories have emerged to explore the negative outcomes that occur
when women are exposed to unattainable beauty images. According to cultivation theory (Schooler, Ward, Merriwether, & Caruthers, 2004; Tiggemann, 2003),
the more people view these unattainable beauty images, the more they will come
to adopt this unrealistic standard of beauty as reality. Similarly, self-objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) asserts such images socialize women
to view themselves as a physical object which in turn leads to a greater emphasis
on their physical appearance. Work guided by these theoretical perspectives has
found that greater attention, effort, and anxiety in regards to ones physical appearance is associated with a number of negative body image outcomes, including
impaired physical and mental capabilities (Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005; Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998), body shame (Fredrickson et al.,
1998; Tiggemann & Slater, 2001), desire for cosmetic surgery (Markey & Markey,
2009), depression (Tolman, Impett, Tracy, & Michael, 2006), and eating disorder
symptomatology (Becker, 2004). Overall, this body of work indicates that the more
women focus on their physical appearance and feel they are falling short of the
beauty ideal, the more they suffer from maladaptive appearance concerns.
But the media does more than present women with unattainable beauty standards. In many cases, it also tells women there is something they can do to reach
these standards. Beauty magazines and cosmetic companies promote the idea
that beauty is flexible, suggesting that if women purchase the right beauty products or cosmetic procedures, they can come close to attaining this idealized image (Brownell, 1991; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). For
example, 83% of young women regularly read fashion and beauty magazines
(Thompson et al., 1999) and their main motivation for doing so is to gain information on how to improve their appearance (Tiggemann, 2003). Thus, it may be that
womens beliefs about whether they can do something to change their beauty to
be closer to the ideal may be just as important in predicting negative outcomes as
the idealized images themselves.

468 BURKLEY ET AL.

Beliefs about the Malleability of Traits

Outside of the beauty realm, peoples beliefs about whether a particular trait is
changeable or not have received a great deal of empirical attention. According to
Dweck and colleagues, people with an entity perspective assume traits are fixed
and stable whereas people with an incremental perspective assume traits are malleable and changeable (e.g., Dweck, 1999; Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995; Dweck &
Leggett, 1988). Across a number of different domains, researchers have demonstrated that incremental theorists are more likely to adopt goals to increase and
improve their ability, put forth more effort toward the ability domain, and persist
on the domain despite negative performance feedback (for reviews, see Burnette,
OBoyle, VanEpps, Pollack, & Finkel, 2013; Dweck et al., 1995). Put simply, the
belief that a trait is malleable leads people to work harder at improving the trait,
especially in the face of failure feedback (e.g., Burkley, Parker, Stermer, & Burkley,
2010).
Nearly all research on implicit theories indicates that adopting a malleable perspective results in good outcomes, including less performance anxiety (Burns &
Isbell, 2007; Plaks & Stecher, 2007) and better motivation and performance (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Burkley et al., 2010; Dweck, 1999). However,
this work has largely studied traits that are attainable, such as academic test performance. Clearly, increased attention and effort toward improving ones grades
is beneficial because it means people will work harder in school and will be less
likely to abandon their academic studies (Dweck, 1999; Dweck & Leggett, 1988).
But when the same pattern of attention and behavior is used to achieve an unattainable beauty standard, the outcomes may be less beneficial. Thus, it may be that
a malleable perspective is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial; the key may
be whether the performance standard in question is one that is attainable.
Several areas of research are suggestive that malleable views may produce negative outcomes when directed toward an unattainable domain like beauty. First,
literature on general perceptions of control is informative. Many theorists assert
humans have a fundamental need to act autonomously and have a sense of control
over their own lives (Deci & Ryan, 2012; Langer, 1975; Rotter, 1954). These perceptions of autonomous control (even illusory perceptions) are perceived as psychologically beneficial because they encourage people to persistently pursue their
goals even in the face of obstacles and low odds of success (Stefan & Davie, 2013;
Taylor, 1989). But perceptions of control can also lead people to pursue unrealistic
goals and to adopt harmful behaviors in pursuit of such goals. For instance, women who perceive they have a great deal of control over their body weight are more
likely to engage in disordered eating behaviors, including dieting, skipping meals
when hungry, and purging after a meal (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Second, goal
striving and self-regulation are generally perceived to be beneficial. However, the
reverse is true when people strive for an unrealistic or unattainable goal. According to research on goal disengagement, people who abandon unattainable goals
have higher subjective well-being and less depression than people who continue
to strive for such goals (Wrosch & Miller, 2009; Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, Schulz, &

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 469

Carver, 2003). So greater control perceptions and goal striving are common consequences of malleable beliefs and in most cases these consequences are beneficial.
However, when malleable beliefs are directed toward an unattainable domain,
these consequences instead produce harmful outcomes.
In sum, people who believe their intelligence or academic skills are malleable
tend to invest more attention and effort in improving these traits. However, the
domain of beauty is different because the idealized standard represents a largely
unattainable goal. Thus, the increase in attention and effort that results from a malleable perspective may result in negative consequences when directed toward the
beauty domain.

Present Theory
The purpose of the present work was to examine the impact of womens implicit
theories of beauty. Prior research on beauty ideals suggests that when women focus on their appearance, negative consequences ensue (e.g., Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; McKinley & Hyde, 1996). However, it remains to be seen if womens
beliefs about whether beauty is malleable or fixed alter this relationship. Based on
the notion that beauty standards are largely unattainable, we hypothesized that
women who believe beauty is malleable will exhibit more harmful appearance
concerns than women who believe beauty is fixed. If this were the case, it would
suggest that the commonly communicated beauty is malleable message is undesirable and potentially maladaptive.
Importantly, we did not expect mens implicit theories of beauty to have a particularly strong impact on their appearance concerns. This prediction was based
on a number of insights. First, mens beauty standards are not as extreme or unattainable as womens beauty standards (Stice, 2003; Wolf, 2002). Second, men are
less likely than women to be objectified in the media (APA, 2007; Wolf, 2002) and
as a result, are less likely to internalize the ideal beauty standards as their own
(Fredrickson, Forbes, Grigorian, & Jarcho, 2007; Fredrickson et al., 1998). As a result, numerous studies have found that men are less sensitive to factors that typically ignite womens appearance concerns (APA, 2007; Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004).
This is not to say that men do not have anxiety about their appearance (Hebl et al.,
2004; Martins, Tiggemann, & Kirkbride, 2007). It is just that mens anxiety appears
to be more stable than womens and is therefore less affected by factors that impact
appearance concerns.

Study 1
The purpose of this preliminary study was twofold. First, we sought to assess if
people do in fact vary in their implicit beliefs about whether beauty is fixed or
malleable. To assess implicit beliefs in beauty, we modified items from the general
implicit beliefs assessment to reflect the domain of beauty. We chose to focus on

470 BURKLEY ET AL.

the term beauty rather than another term like appearance or attractiveness
because the messages most commonly communicated to women in Western cultures in regard to their appearance is in reference to beauty ideals, competitions, standards, and practices (e.g., Bissell & Rask, 2010; Markey & Markey, 2012;
Swami et al., 2010).
Second, given such variability, we sought to examine if a fixed or malleable perspective is associated with appearance concerns. We selected two measures commonly used in the appearance and objectification literature and predicted that
both measures would significantly correlate with implicit beauty beliefs such that
women with malleable beliefs would evidence greater appearance concerns than
women with fixed beliefs.

Method
Participants. One hundred and twenty-eight female students from a large Midwestern university completed the materials online for course credit (mean age =
19.67, SD = 2.80). The sample consisted of 87% Caucasians, 3% African Americans,
3% Latino Americans, 3% Native Americans, 2% Asian Americans, and 2% unreported ethnicity.

Procedure and Measures

Implicit Theories of Beauty. To assess individual differences in implicit theories of
beauty, we created a four-item measure modified after Chiu and colleagues (Chiu,
Hong, & Dweck, 1997) general measure of implicit theories. Specifically, our four
items assessed the extent to which participants perceived beauty as fixed or malleable (i.e., Natural beauty does not change much over a lifetimepeople who
are born beautiful stay beautiful and people not born beautiful typically stay that
way too; A persons level of natural beauty is something very basic about them
and it cant be changed much; People who are born without natural beauty cant
do much to change that; People can do things to change their appearance a bit, but
they cant really change their level of natural beauty). We selected the phrase natural beauty because we felt it best represented a persons true beauty, rather than
other appearance factors (e.g., clothing). Responses were made on a 1 (Strongly
Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree) rating scale and were averaged to create a composite
score ( = .79). Thus, lower values indicate a more malleable perspective of beauty
and higher values indicate a fixed perspective. Our subsequent analyses treated
this measure as continuous, but for purely descriptive purposes, we used the midpoint as a cutoff (Chiu et al., 1997) and found that 30% (N = 38) of participants held
an incremental perspective of beauty, 47% (N = 60) held an entity perspective, and
23% (N = 30) were undecided (i.e., scored at the midpoint).
Appearance-Related Attention and Effort. Next, participants completed the Appearance Schemas InventoryRevised (ASI-R; Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004). We
selected this measure because it is commonly used in the appearance and objectification literature, but unlike most of those measures, it focuses on general appearance rather than body image (e.g., Rusticus, Hubley, & Zumbo, 2008; Smith

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 471

& Davenport, 2012). The ASI-R consists of 20 items that include questions regarding greater attention to ones appearance (e.g., When I meet people for the first
time, I wonder what they think about how I look) and greater effort exerted on
appearance-management behaviors (e.g., I often check my appearance in a mirror just to make sure I look okay). Prior workusing both clinical and nonclinical
sampleshas established this scale as a valid predictor of appearance dissatisfaction, dysfunctional appearance-related emotions, and harmful eating behaviors
(see Cash & Hrabosky, 2003, for review). Responses were made on a 1 (Strongly
Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) rating scale and were averaged to create a composite
score, with higher values indicating greater attention and effort regarding ones
appearance ( = .87).
Contingent Self-Worth. Finally, participants completed the physical attractiveness
subscale of the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (CSW; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001).
The CSW assesses the extent that various domains (e.g., academics) are important
sources of ones self-esteem. We relied on the physical attractiveness subscale of
the CSW, which contains five items that assess how much physical attractiveness
is an important source of self-worth (e.g., When I think I look attractive, I feel
good about myself). Prior work has demonstrated that self-worth based on physical attractiveness is associated with a number of negative outcomes, including
appearance dissatisfaction, increased body surveillance, and greater depressive
symptomatology (Overstreet & Quinn, 2012; Sargent, Crocker, & Luhtanen, 2006).
Responses were made on a 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree) rating scale
and were averaged to create a composite score ( = .75), with higher values indicating greater importance of physical attractiveness on self-worth.

Results and Discussion

As expected, implicit theories of beauty significantly correlated with appearancerelated attention and effort, r = -.18, p = .04. The more a woman believed beauty is
malleable (lower implicit theories score), the more she focused on her appearance
and engaged in appearance-management strategies. Implicit theories of beauty
also significantly correlated with CSW on attractiveness, r = -.20, p = .02. The
more a woman believed beauty is malleable, the more she based her self-esteem
on physical attractiveness. Thus, the results of this preliminary study show that
women do vary in their implicit theories of beauty and that a malleable belief is
associated with greater appearance concerns than a fixed belief.

Study 2
The correlational data from Study 1 is suggestive, but several questions remained
that we sought to address in our second study. First, our preliminary study only
included women. By including male participants in this second study, we were
able to determine if men also vary in their beliefs about beauty and if so, whether
this variability is related to appearance concerns in the same it is for women. Prior

472 BURKLEY ET AL.

work indicates women are more likely than men to experience objectification and
media pressure to conform to a beauty ideal; therefore they are more sensitive to
factors that impact appearance concerns (see APA, 2007, for review). Thus, we expected a malleable beauty belief to have a stronger impact on appearance concerns
for women than men. Second, Study 2 manipulated beauty beliefs to determine if
implicit theories of beauty play a causal role in appearance concerns. Third, our
use of the term natural beauty in our implicit measure may have implied a more
fixed quality of beauty, which in turn may have skewed our results. To address this
concern, the Study 2 manipulation only used the term beauty. Fourth, we sought
to extend this work by including additional appearance concern measures.
Lastly, to better understand the connection between implicit beauty beliefs and
appearance concerns, we examined a potential mediator. According to the objectification literature, body shame and appearance anxiety are the two major variables
that mediate the relationship between objectification and harmful appearance concerns (e.g., Choma et al., 2010; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Monro & Huon, 2005;
Slater & Tiggermann, 2002). Body shame refers to how ashamed people feel about
their body not matching the thin body ideal (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Appearance anxiety refers to peoples concerns about their overall physical appearance
(Dion, Dion, & Keelan, 1990). Since the emphasis of the present work is less on the
body and more on general attractiveness and beauty, we focused on appearance
anxiety as a potential mediator between malleable beauty beliefs and appearance
concerns.

Method
Participants. One hundred and fifty students (71 women, 79 men) from a large
Midwestern university participated for course credit (mean age = 19.69, SD = 2.94).
The sample consisted of 73% Caucasians, 8% African Americans, 6% Latino Americans, 5% Asian Americans, 4% Native Americans, and 4% unreported ethnicity.

Procedure and Materials

Implicit Theories of Beauty Manipulation. In this study, participants implicit theories of beauty were manipulated using articles similar to that of Chiu and colleagues (1997). Specifically, participants were randomly assigned to read one of
three Psychology Today style articles created by the researchers. Individuals in the
fixed condition read an article with study results and expert quotations that highlighted the fixed nature of beauty (e.g., Beauty is rather fixed and does not significantly change over time, In most of us, by the age of ten, our physical features
have set like plaster and they do not change as we age. Therefore, beauty is a stable
trait). Individuals in the malleable condition read an article with study results and
expert quotations that highlighted the malleable nature of beauty (e.g., Beauty
is rather malleable and significantly changes over time, As people age and develop, their physical features blend and can actually change. Therefore, beauty is
not a stable trait). Thus, these two articles were nearly identical in content, except
that one emphasized a fixed view of beauty and the other emphasized a malleable

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 473

view. Finally, individuals in the control condition read an article irrelevant to beauty
(i.e., jellyfish).
After reading the article, participants completed the same implicit theories of
beauty measure used in Study 1. Next, they completed Chiu and colleagues (1997)
general implicit theories measure (e.g., Everyone is a certain kind of person and
there is not much that can be done to really change that). This allowed us to
test if the article manipulation altered participants general implicit beliefs or just
their beauty beliefs. The beauty items ( = .74) and general items ( = .82) were
each averaged to create a composite score, with higher values on both indicating
a stronger fixed belief.
Appearance Anxiety. Next, participants completed the Appearance Anxiety Questionnaire (Dion et al., 1990). Appearance anxiety refers to peoples concerns about
how they look and is often manifested through constant attention to and adjusting
of ones appearance (APA, 2007; Keelan et al., 1992). Prior work has demonstrated
that appearance anxiety is higher among women than men and that it increases
when women view themselves in a way that emphasizes their attractiveness or sex
appeal (e.g., Slater & Tiggemann, 2002). This measure contains 30 items that assess anxiety associated with ones physical appearance (e.g., I feel nervous about
aspects of my physical appearance, I am concerned or worried about my ability
to attract members of the opposite sex). Responses were made on a 1 (Never) to 5
(Almost Always) rating scale and were averaged to create a composite score, with
higher values indicating greater appearance anxiety ( = .90).
Contingent Self-Worth. Next, participants completed the same physical attractiveness subscale of the CSW used in Study 1 ( = .79). Typically research on CSW
treats this construct as a chronic trait but more recent research supports the assertion that changes in CSW can occur as a result of situational influences (Buckingham, Weber, & Sypher, 2012; OKeefe, Ben-Eliyahu, & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2013).
We therefore treated CSW as a dependent variable in order to determine if our
beauty manipulation alters the extent that people base their self-worth on physical
attractiveness.
Interest in Cosmetic Surgery. Next, participants completed items taken from the
Interest in Cosmetic Surgery Questionnaire (Markey & Markey, 2009). This scale
measures participants interest in a variety of cosmetic surgery procedures. Some
of these procedures are largely irrelevant to men (e.g., breast lift, breast augmentation); therefore we selected items relevant to both sexes (e.g., liposuction, chin,
nose). Responses were made on a 1 (I would never consider this procedure) to 5 (I
would definitely consider this procedure) rating scale and were averaged to create a
composite score, with higher values indicating greater interest in cosmetic surgery
( = .89).

474 BURKLEY ET AL.

Figure 1. Appearance anxiety as a function of gender and experimental condition (Study 2).
The rating scale ranged from 1-5. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Results
The correlations among the dependent variables were as follows: appearance anxiety and CSW (r = .53, p = .001), appearance anxiety and surgery interest (r = .35, p
= .001), and CSW and surgery interest (r = .19, p = .02).
Results were analyzed using a 3 (Article Condition) 2 (Gender) factorial analysis of variance. Gender was coded such that 0 = women and 1 = men.
Implicit Theories. As expected, the manipulation article significantly impacted
participants implicit theories of beauty, F(2, 144) = 20.41, p < .001, 2 = .22. Participants in the fixed condition rated beauty as significantly more fixed (M = 4.47, SD
= 1.13) than those in the control condition (M = 3.69, SD = .95), t(147) = 3.81, p <
.001, d = .62, and those in the control condition rated beauty as significantly more
fixed than those in the malleable condition (M = 3.11, SD = 1.01), t(147) = 2.82, p
= .006, d = .47. However, there was no main effect of gender or interaction with
gender, Fs < .20.
Lastly, there was no effect of condition on the general implicit theories measure,
F(2, 144) = .84, p = .44. This indicates our article manipulation only affected implicit
beliefs about beauty (rather than general implicit beliefs).
Appearance Anxiety. There was a significant Condition Gender interaction for
appearance anxiety, F(2, 144) = 4.09, p = .02, 2 = .05 (Figure 1). As expected, women
in the malleable condition had significantly higher appearance anxiety (M = 2.76,
SD = .57) than women in the fixed condition (M = 2.32, SD = .40), t(68) = 2.98, p =
.004, d = 0.72. Women in the malleable condition also had significantly higher appearance anxiety than women in the control condition (M = 2.47, SD = .54), t(68)
= 2.02, p = .05, d = .50. However, women in the control condition did not have

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 475

Figure 2. Contingent self-worth (CSW) on physical attractiveness as a function of gender and

experimental condition (Study 2). The rating scale ranged from 1-7. Error bars represent 95%
confidence intervals.

significantly higher anxiety than women in the fixed condition, t < 1. For men, appearance anxiety was not influenced by condition.
Contingent Self-Worth. There was a significant main effect of gender, such that
womens self-worth was more contingent on physical attractiveness (M = 5.57, SD
= 1.22) than mens (M = 4.05, SD = 1.04), F(1, 144) = 7.73, p = .006, 2 = .05. However, this was qualified by a significant Condition Gender interaction, F(2, 144)
= 3.18, p = .05, 2 = .04 (Figure 2). As expected, women in the malleable condition
had self-worth that was more contingent on physical attractiveness (M = 5.18, SD
= .95) than women in the fixed condition (M = 4.16, SD = 1.27), t(68) = 3.08, p = .003,
d = 0.75. Women in the malleable condition also had self-worth that was more contingent on physical attractiveness than women in the control condition (M = 4.32,
SD = 1.21), t(68) = 2.58, p = .01, d = .63. But women in the control condition did not
have self-worth that was more contingent than women in the fixed condition, t <
1. For men, self-worth contingency was not influenced by condition.
Interest in Cosmetic Surgery. Overall interest in cosmetic surgery was low (M
= 1.23), but this is consistent with prior surveys conducted on college students
(American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2011; Sarwer et al., 2005). Also consistent
with prior research was the fact that there was a significant main effect of gender,
such that women were more interested in cosmetic surgery (M = 1.33, SD = .55)
than men (M = 1.15, SD = .41), F(1, 144) = 4.82, p = .03, 2 = .03.
Importantly, this main effect of gender was qualified by a significant Condition
Gender interaction, F(2, 144) = 3.10, p = .05, 2 = .04 (Figure 3). As expected,
women in the malleable condition were more interested in cosmetic surgery (M
= 1.52, SD = .78) than women in the fixed condition (M = 1.16, SD = .32), t(68) =
2.36, p = .02, d = 0.57. Women in the malleable condition were somewhat more interested in cosmetic surgery than women in the control condition (M = 1.28, SD =

476 BURKLEY ET AL.

Figure 3. Interest in cosmetic surgery as a function of gender and experimental condition

(Study 2). The rating scale ranged from 1-5. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

.35), although this effect failed to reach significance, t(68) = 1.57, p = .12. However,
women in the control condition were not more interested than women in the fixed
condition, t(68) = .75, p = .44. For men, interest in cosmetic surgery was not influenced by condition.
Mediational Analyses. Lastly, we tested whether differences in appearance anxiety mediated the effect of the Condition Gender interaction on our dependent
variables. Due to the unexpectedly high overlap between appearance anxiety and
CSW (r = .53), we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to examine if the two
scales tap into separate constructs. The results suggested they did not, therefore
we do not report the mediational analyses for CSW.
To test for mediated moderation in regard to cosmetic surgery interests (see Figure 4), a bootstrapping analysis based on 5,000 bootstraps was conducted using
PROCESS (Hayes, 2013). The results showed the direct effect of the Condition
Gender interaction, b = -.24, t(146) = -2.52, p = .01, was reduced to non-significance,
b = -.16, t(145) = -1.71, p = .09, after controlling for the potential mediator of appearance anxiety. Importantly, this reduction was statistically significant, as indicated
by a 95% bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect effect that did not include
zero (-0.18 to -0.02). Thus, the effect of the interaction on cosmetic surgery interests
was fully mediated by appearance anxiety.
To further probe the data, we examined the conditional indirect effect for women and men separately. For women, appearance anxiety mediated the effect of condition on surgery interest as indicated by a 95% bootstrap confidence interval for
the indirect effect that did not include zero (CI = .02 to .18). For men, appearance
anxiety did not mediate the effect of condition on surgery interest (CI = -.06 to .02).
Thus, the effect of condition on cosmetic surgery interest was mediated through
appearance anxiety for women but not men.

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 477

Figure 4. Conceptual mediated moderation model for appearance anxiety on interest in

cosmetic surgery (Study 2).

Because appearance anxiety and CSW were highly correlated constructs, we examined an alternative mediation model with CSW instead of appearance anxiety
mediating the effect of condition on surgery interest. The results showed that CSW
did not mediate this effect for women (CI = -.01 to .14) or men (CI = -.02 to .02), as
evidenced by a 95% bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect effect that did
include zero. Thus, appearance anxiety, but not CSW, mediated the effect of the
implicit theories manipulation on surgery interest.

Discussion
Across these varied measures, women who were convinced that beauty is malleable demonstrated greater appearance concerns than women who did not receive this message. Men did not show this pattern. Although mens beliefs about
beauty were successfully manipulated, these beliefs did not in turn influence their
appearance concerns in the way that they did for women. Thus, the message that
beauty is malleable led to negative outcomes among women, but not men. Furthermore, the mediational analyses indicated that one negative outcome of this
message, interest in cosmetic surgery, is mediated by an increase in womens appearance anxiety.
It is worth noting that women who were convinced that beauty is fixed did not
show less appearance concerns than women in the control condition. There are
two potential explanations for this pattern. First, it may be that the fixed message
is simply not as powerful as the malleable message. The fixed beauty message is
certainly less prevalent in our culture than the malleable message, so it may be
that its novelty resulted in a weaker impact. Second, it may be that most women
already believe beauty is fixed; therefore those in the control and fixed conditions
held similar beliefs. Consistent with this assertion, Study 1 did find that 47% of
women hold a fixed belief of beauty. If a fixed belief is the default for most women,
it would be interesting to examine if this occurs over time. It may be that young

478 BURKLEY ET AL.

girls are more likely to adopt the media message that beauty is malleable, but after
repeated attempts and failures to live up to the unattainable standards, they come
to believe beauty is fixed. Future research should explore the developmental trajectory of these beauty beliefs.

General Discussion
For most women, beauty is an ever-receding mirage. The more they work to
achieve the idealized beauty standard, the more it slips from their grasp. In support of this analogy, we found women who view beauty as malleable appear to be
more vulnerable to appearance concerns than women who view beauty as fixed.
Furthermore, the causal implications of our second study suggest that stories or
magazine articles that communicate a message of malleable beauty may in fact set
women up for future appearance concerns. We refer to this overall tendency for
malleable beauty beliefs to produce negative appearance concerns as the ugly
duckling effect. However, our results suggest that men do not appear to show
this ugly duckling effect. Although men do vary in their beliefs about beauty, these
beliefs are not associated with greater appearance concerns in the way that they
are for women.
Although our studies represent an important extension of prior research, several
limitations exist. First, for reasons described earlier, we sought to focus on the domain of beauty. It may be that other terms like attractiveness or appearance
respond differently or are more likely to be impactful for both men and women.
Second, the effects discovered in the present studies may be moderated by a number of other variables. For example, peoples satisfaction with their own appearance may moderate our effects. The majority of women are dissatisfied with their
appearance (Fallon & Rozin, 1985; Silberstein, Striegal-Moore, & Rodin, 1987), so
it may be that women who hold malleable beauty beliefs and are dissatisfied with
their appearance are most likely to demonstrate harmful appearance concerns.
Third, the present studies did not include behavioral outcomes so it would be useful to explore if women with malleable beauty beliefs are more likely to engage in
behaviors directed toward improving their attractiveness (e.g., purchasing makeup, reading beauty magazines). Future research should explore these possibilities.
A final limitation is in regard to the gender difference found in Study 2. Results showed that mens beauty beliefs were influenced by the malleable and fixed
beauty messages (i.e., evidence of a successful manipulation), but their appearance
concerns were not. Although this gender difference is consistent with research on
self-objectification (Fredrickson et al., 1998; 2007), it remains to be seen exactly
why mens appearance concerns were less influenced by the messages. As we suggested earlier, it could be that the term beauty is more relevant to women than
men. It could also be that men are less likely to value the domain of beauty and
therefore their appearance concerns are less impacted by messages regarding this
domain. Finally, if appearance satisfaction moderates our effects as we previously

UGLY DUCKLING EFFECT 479

suggested, this could also explain the gender difference. Most women are dissatisfied with their appearance whereas most men are not (Fallon & Rozin, 1985), so
appearance satisfaction may explain our gender difference. Examining the exact
reason for this gender difference is beyond the scope of the present article, but
future research should explore the exact mechanism that underlies this pattern.

Theoretical Implications
The present results have important implications for addressing the epidemic of
appearance concerns that plague women in modern society (Wolf, 2002). If women with malleable beauty beliefs are most vulnerable to appearance concerns, it
may be beneficial to identify them early on, before societal pressures have set in.
Furthermore, since implicit theories are known to be easily altered (Chiu et al.,
1997), understanding their role in womens appearance concerns may offer new
opportunities for psychological interventions. In the past, interventions have been
created to help people adopt a malleable view of intelligence in an attempt to improve academic standing (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002). In the case of beauty,
a program could instead be designed to combat societys message that beauty is
malleable. It may seem counterintuitive to convince young girls there is not much
they can do to improve their beauty, but anecdotal evidence suggests just such a
message may be beneficial. In early 2013, Victorias Secret model Cameron Russell
made headlines when she stated her beauty was not based on hard work but on
the fact that she had won a genetic lottery (Russell, 2013). Many women reacted
to this message by stating it was inspirational and empowering. Future research
should explore if an intervention with such a fixed-beauty message would also be
empowering.
The present work also provides further theoretical insight into implicit theories
more generally. Nearly all research on implicit theories indicates a fixed perspective results in negative outcomes and a malleable perspective results in positive
outcomes. Prior research also suggests a malleable perspective is associated with
less anxiety than a fixed perspective (e.g., Burns & Isbell, 2007; Plaks & Stecher,
2007). However, the present studies suggest a theoretical boundary. Malleable perspectives may be beneficial and associated with less anxiety when directed toward
domains that are attainable, but may backfire when directed toward domains that
are unattainable. The present studies provide one of the only known demonstrations that malleable beliefs can have negative consequences (see also El-Alayli &
Baumgardner, 2003). This recognition that malleable beliefs are not always better may serve as a catalyst for future research that identifies when such beliefs
are beneficial and when they are harmful. We therefore encourage future implicit
theories researchers to think outside the box and consider other domains where
malleable beliefs may be more maladaptive than fixed beliefs.

480 BURKLEY ET AL.

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