Mueller and Dweck's seminal study
Several seminal studies on the growth mindset is described in Mueller and Dweck's 1998 paper "Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance" (
abstract,
2MB pdf).
The authors found that
praising students for effort led students to peform better, as well as to choose activities that would challenge them and help them learn more. On the other hand, praising students for
being intelligent led students to choose activities that would help them look good, instead of learn... as well as to
lie about their scores 3 times more often than other students!
It may be surprising that only a few words can cause markedly changed behaviours, but this finding is typical in the field.
