Praise and growth mindset: what holds up
The short version: How you praise does shape how children handle failure — praise for being clever made children avoid challenges. But the big claims for growth-mindset programs are much weaker than their reputation: on average, their effect on achievement is tiny.
The studies
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33–52. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33
Who was studied: Fifth graders (around 10–12 years old), across six experiments.
Design: Laboratory experiments
What they found: Children praised for being smart after an easy task were more likely to choose easy problems next, enjoyed the task less and persisted less after a failure, and did worse afterwards — compared with children praised for their effort. Some even misreported their scores.
Sisk, V. F., Burgoyne, A. P., Sun, J., Butler, J. L., & Macnamara, B. N. (2018). To what extent and under which circumstances are growth mind-sets important to academic achievement? Two meta-analyses. Psychological Science, 29(4), 549–571. doi:10.1177/0956797617739704
Who was studied: 273 studies with about 366,000 students, and 43 intervention studies with about 57,000 students.
Design: Two meta-analyses
What they found: The link between having a growth mindset and doing well at school was weak, and programs that teach growth mindset had, on average, only small effects on achievement. Students from low-income families or those at academic risk may benefit somewhat more.
How strong is the evidence?
The praise finding is a classic but was done with older children, and later replications are mixed. The meta-analyses are strong evidence that growth-mindset programs are not the powerful fix they were sold as.
What these studies don't show
- They don't show that five-year-olds respond the same way as ten-year-olds — the classic study didn't test young children.
- They don't show that saying "yet" or praising effort improves grades. It's a small nudge, not a program.
What it means for parents
- Describe what your child did rather than who they are: "You tried it three different ways" instead of "You're so smart."
- Keep expectations realistic. A single phrase won't transform a child — the everyday reaction to mistakes, repeated for months, is what counts.
- Model it: make a mistake out loud and try another way.
Not Yet (lesson 17) and Plan B (lesson 20) practice what to do after something goes wrong — the part of growth mindset that holds up best.