How did students’ theories of intelligence affect their views on success and effort?
Students who held fixed or growth mindsets felt successful at different times and in different ways. The former felt most successful when they outshone other pupils, even when they were not learning much. The latter felt successful when they were learning, even if others outperformed them. The two groups also differed in their attitude to effort. Students who believed in fixed intelligence wanted to do well, but also thought that the cleverest people did not have to work hard. They disliked having to work hard because it made them feel that they were not very clever. Moreover, they believed that, if they were not clever, hard work was not going to help them much. These students were therefore not inclined to work hard when they encountered difficulties. Instead, when students who believed in fixed intelligence faced a task they feared they could not achieve, they sometimes chose to put in little or no effort. This gave them a ready-made excuse for failure: ‘I didn’t do it because I cou
