Lay Theories of Networking: How Laypeople’s Beliefs About Networks Affect Their Attitudes Toward and Engagement in Instrumental Networking

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There is growing evidence of a “knowing-doing gap” in networking: many people feel conflicted or ambivalent about engaging in instrumental networking, even while recognizing the importance of being well-connected. Here we turn to an important piece of the puzzle that has been undertheorized: laypeople’s beliefs about the nature of networks. Borrowing from the literature on lay theories in motivational psychology, we examine the effects of how laypeople construe different components of networks—individuals and their social intelligence, social relations, and social capital—as relatively fixed or malleable. We explain how each belief affects people’s attitudes toward both the utility and morality of networking, with consequences for their engagement in different forms of networking (searching for new ties, maintaining existing ties, and leveraging social capital). We also consider these beliefs’ downstream consequences for the size, diversity, and cohesiveness of networks people build. Overall, by examining...