Praise for intelligence (person praise) induces a fixed mindset and helpless reactions compared with process praise¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Across six studies, praise for children's intelligence (versus effort or outcome praise) was more likely to induce a fixed mindset, performance goals, low-ability attributions, and impaired performance after failure. → Dweck 2019

Evidence¶

Dweck 2019¶

Dweck, C. S., & Yeager, D. S. (2019). Mindsets: A View From Two Eras. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618804166

q3 · i? · review · r2

Mueller and Dweck (1998) conducted six studies with late grade-school children comparing person, process, and outcome praise after success; the article reports person praise "was more likely to induce a fixed mindset" with performance goals and helpless reactions. No effect sizes are printed in the quoted text.

"Across the studies, we demonstrated that after a success, praise for intelligence (person praise), compared with praise for effort (process praise) or praise for outcome, was more likely to induce a fixed mindset, along with its old friends: performance goals, low-ability attributions for failure, and impaired performance (helpless reactions) following failure."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Parents' beliefs about failure and reactions to children's failures, not their own mindsets, predict children's mindsets — related
• Praise for intelligence, rather than for effort, after success undermines children's motivation and performance after a later failure — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• A CCSR research review concludes that four academic mindsets (belonging, growth beliefs, self-efficacy and value) increase perseverance and improve academic behaviors — a broader claim this one bears on
• Prolonged reading failure leads students to attribute failure to fixed low ability and define reading as a failure situation — related
• Learners' task-specific self-efficacy beliefs predict whether they initiate, persist through, and recover from difficulty on academic tasks. — related
• Feedback Most Effective At Task And Process Levels — related
• Gaming participants did not report the negative consequences of task failure; low-stakes experimentation and regeneration supported perseverance — related
• Specific observable mindset-signaling behaviors have been identified that convey peers' implicit beliefs about ability — related