Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Carol Dweck · 2006
"People who hold a 'growth mindset' — believing ability can be developed through effort — tend to achieve more and handle setbacks better than those with a 'fixed mindset,' though later large-scale replications found the effect considerably smaller and more context-dependent than the book implies."
Dweck's original research compared students who believed intelligence was fixed against students who believed it was malleable, finding the 'growth mindset' group persisted longer through difficulty, interpreted failure as informative rather than identity-threatening, and often out-performed the fixed-mindset group over time in her controlled studies.
The proposed mechanism is that a fixed mindset makes any failure feel like evidence about a permanent, unchangeable trait — so avoiding failure, and therefore avoiding challenge, becomes rational — while a growth mindset reframes failure as informative feedback about current skill rather than a verdict on fixed potential. Subsequent large-scale, independent replications found this effect is much smaller in the real world than in Dweck's original lab studies, and that simply telling people to 'have a growth mindset' without structural support does little on its own.
What did large-scale, independent replications of Dweck's most-cited studies find?
Read more about the topic
The explanation above is written with AI assistance. These are the originals — go to them to check it.
- Debate Arises over Teaching 'Growth Mindsets' to Motivate StudentsScientific American
- The power of believing that you can improveTED Talk, Carol Dweck (TEDxNorrköping)
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
"Grit — sustained passion and perseverance toward long-term goals — predicts achievement across domains (West Point cadets, spelling bee finalists, teachers, salespeople) independent of, and sometimes better than, raw talent, though Duckworth's own later statements scale back the size of the effect from her original framing."