Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Graded by design analogy; series of controlled experimental trials in educational psychology.
PubMed 9686450 · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.75.1.33
What was done
Across six experimental studies, researchers compared the effects of praise for intelligence versus praise for effort in fifth-grade students. Measured outcomes included orientation toward performance versus learning goals, task persistence, task enjoyment, low-ability attributions after failure, post-failure task performance, and beliefs regarding intelligence as a fixed versus improvable trait.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, exact sample sizes, or test statistics. Across six studies, fifth graders praised for intelligence cared more about performance goals relative to learning goals and described intelligence as a fixed trait more than those praised for effort. Following failure, children praised for intelligence demonstrated less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance relative to children praised for effort.
Why it matters
This paper demonstrates that ability-based praise can inadvertently undermine resilience and performance under failure, supporting effort-focused feedback to foster learning goals.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample sizes, effect sizes, p-values, or confidence intervals. The population is restricted to fifth graders in structured tasks, and long-term maintenance of these effects in normal classroom environments is not reported.
Cited by
- supports Praising children for fixed traits like being smart makes them interpret failure as being stupid, whereas praising effort reinforces repeatable positive behaviors.