How to Correctly Praise Children to Foster Growth Mindset | Dr. Andrew Huberman

Summary

The video script discusses a groundbreaking study by Dr. Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller, which revealed the impact of different types of praise on children's motivation and performance. The study found that praising intelligence undermined children's motivation to take on challenges and lowered their subsequent performance. In contrast, praising effort motivated children to embrace more difficult tasks and significantly improved their performance over time. The findings highlight the importance of praising the process rather than innate abilities, as it cultivates a growth mindset and fosters continuous learning and improvement.

Takeaways

• 🔑 A study by Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller found that praising children for intelligence can undermine their motivation and performance, while praising them for effort can improve their motivation and performance.
• 🧠 Children who received intelligence praise (e.g., being told they are smart or talented) tended to choose easier tasks to continue receiving that praise, while children who received effort praise chose more challenging tasks to continue being praised for their effort.
• 📈 Children praised for effort outperformed those praised for intelligence by a large margin.
• 🚫 Praising children for intelligence (e.g., telling them they are smart) caused their performance to decline, while praising them for effort increased their performance.
• 💬 The narratives and feedback we receive from others reinforce certain patterns of behavior.
• 👪 Parents and teachers should be careful about giving feedback that is attached to a child's identity, especially when they are performing well.
• 🌟 Rewarding oneself or others based on effort is the best way to improve performance, while rewarding based on identity labels (e.g., "you're so talented") can undermine performance.
• 💪 Effort praise (e.g., "you tried really hard," "you persisted") focuses on the actions and choices made by the child, rather than labeling them with an identity.
• 🎯 Effort praise encourages children to pick challenges that allow them to exert effort and learn, while intelligence praise leads them to pick tasks they can already perform well on.
• 🤔 The study highlights the importance of being mindful of the language and feedback we use, as it can have a significant impact on motivation, behavior, and performance.

Q & A

What is the main finding of Dr. Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller's research on praise and motivation in children?

The main finding is that praising children for intelligence can undermine their motivation and performance, whereas praising them for effort can enhance their motivation and performance.

How does intelligence feedback affect children's choice of tasks according to the study?

Children who received intelligence feedback tended to choose easier tasks that they knew they could perform well on, to continue receiving praise for being smart or talented.

What type of feedback did the study compare intelligence feedback to?

The study compared intelligence feedback to effort feedback, which focuses on the child's attempt and perseverance rather than innate ability.

What behavior does effort feedback encourage in children?

Effort feedback encourages children to choose harder problems that could teach them more, indicating a preference for challenges and learning.

What were the outcomes measured in the study regarding the types of feedback given to children?

The study measured the children's choice of task difficulty, their raw performance on cognitive problems, and how these aspects were affected by the type of praise they received.

How did children's performance change after receiving intelligence praise versus effort praise?

Children who received intelligence praise showed a significant decrease in performance on subsequent tasks, while those who received effort praise showed a significant improvement.

What does the study suggest about the impact of praise on reinforcing certain behaviors in children?

The study suggests that the type of praise children receive reinforces specific behaviors; intelligence praise reinforces seeking validation, while effort praise reinforces engaging in and learning from challenging activities.

What implication does this research have for parents and teachers in giving feedback?

It implies that parents and teachers should carefully consider the type of feedback they give, emphasizing effort and process over innate intelligence or talent to foster better learning and performance.

What does the study reveal about the role of narratives from others in reinforcing behavior patterns in children?

The study reveals that narratives from others, such as praise, significantly reinforce certain behavior patterns in children, affecting their choices and performance.

How does self-affirmation based on identity labels potentially impact performance according to the transcript?

Self-affirmation based on identity labels, like being smart or talented, can undermine performance over time, suggesting that rewarding effort is a better strategy for improvement.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Impact of Intelligence Praise vs. Effort Feedback on Children's Performance

This section discusses a research paper by Dr. Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller, focusing on how praising children for their intelligence versus their effort affects their motivation and performance. The study reveals that intelligence praise, which ties feedback to a child's identity (e.g., 'smart', 'talented'), can actually undermine motivation and performance. In contrast, effort feedback, which focuses on the actions and persistence of children (e.g., 'you tried hard'), encourages them to embrace challenges and improves their performance. The research involved over a hundred children who were given different types of feedback: intelligence feedback, effort feedback, or no feedback (control group). Children praised for intelligence tended to choose easier tasks to ensure continued praise, while those praised for effort chose challenging tasks that could enhance their learning, demonstrating a significant difference in how the type of praise impacts children's approach to learning and problem-solving.

05:00

🌟 The Consequences of Feedback Type on Children's Choices and Performance

This paragraph extends the discussion on the effects of feedback types, emphasizing the importance for parents and teachers to consider how feedback is framed. It highlights that praising children for their identity, especially when they perform well, can inadvertently discourage them from taking on challenges and affect their raw performance on cognitive tasks negatively. The study found that children receiving intelligence praise performed worse over time, while those receiving effort praise showed significant improvement. This underscores the importance of rewarding effort over innate intelligence to foster a growth mindset, encouraging children to face challenges head-on and improve their abilities. The findings serve as a crucial reminder of the power of words and feedback in shaping a child's approach to learning and self-improvement.

Keywords

💡Growth Mindset

Growth mindset refers to the belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. This concept contrasts with a fixed mindset, which assumes that talents and intelligence are static traits. The video highlights how praising effort (indicative of a growth mindset) rather than innate intelligence encourages children to embrace challenges and persist through difficulties, thereby fostering a love for learning and resilience in the face of obstacles.

💡Praise for Intelligence

Praise for intelligence refers to feedback that attributes success to inherent talent or smartness. The video discusses a research finding that such praise can undermine children's motivation and performance. When children are told they succeed because they are smart, they may avoid challenges to protect their image of being intelligent, leading to reduced growth and learning opportunities.

💡Effort Feedback

Effort feedback is a form of praise that emphasizes the process and effort put into a task rather than the outcome or inherent ability. The video underscores how this type of feedback encourages children to engage with more challenging tasks, as it rewards the process of learning itself. This leads to an increase in motivation and performance because children learn to value persistence and hard work over fixed traits.

💡Performance Goals

Performance goals are objectives that focus on demonstrating competence and receiving favorable judgments from others. In the context of the video, children who received intelligence-based feedback were more inclined to select tasks that would ensure continued praise for being smart, thus favoring performance goals. This approach can limit learning and growth as it prioritizes easy success over challenging opportunities.

💡Learning Goals

Although not explicitly mentioned in the script, learning goals are implied through the discussion of effort feedback. Learning goals focus on improving one's skills and understanding, regardless of immediate performance. The video illustrates that praising effort leads children to choose more challenging tasks (reflecting learning goals), which enhances their abilities and fosters a growth mindset.

💡Identity Labels

Identity labels refer to descriptors that define a person's sense of self in relation to their abilities or traits, such as 'smart' or 'talented.' The video points out the downside of tying feedback to identity labels, which can make children averse to challenges that might threaten those labels. Instead, focusing on behaviors and choices (e.g., effort) supports a more adaptive and growth-oriented identity.

💡Behavioral Choices

Behavioral choices concern the actions individuals decide to take, particularly in the context of learning and facing challenges. The video emphasizes how praising children for their behavioral choices, such as persistent effort and trying hard, leads to better learning outcomes and a preference for challenging tasks, in contrast to praising innate traits.

💡Cognitive Problems

Cognitive problems are tasks or challenges that require mental effort to solve, often used in educational research to measure learning and problem-solving abilities. The video discusses how children's performance on cognitive problems can be influenced by the type of praise they receive, showing that effort praise boosts performance while intelligence praise diminishes it.

💡Bi-Directional Effect

The bi-directional effect refers to the finding that intelligence praise and effort praise have opposite impacts on children's performance and motivation. The video highlights this phenomenon by showing that intelligence praise decreases performance over time, whereas effort praise improves it. This underscores the importance of the type of feedback given to children.

💡Self-Affirmation

Self-affirmation is the practice of reinforcing one's own positive attributes and abilities, often used as a motivational or self-help strategy. The video concludes by questioning the efficacy of self-affirmations based on identity labels, suggesting that they might undermine performance in the long term. Instead, it advocates for self-praise based on effort and persistence to foster improvement and a growth mindset.

Highlights

Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance.

Genuine praise for being smart or talented does not necessarily improve performance.

The study contrasts intelligence feedback with effort feedback.

Intelligence feedback is tied to identity labels, while effort feedback is tied to verbs and actions.

Children who received intelligence feedback chose easier problems to maintain praise.

Children praised for effort chose harder problems to learn more.

Intelligence praise leads children to avoid challenges.

Effort praise motivates children to engage in challenging tasks.

Praise can reinforce patterns of behavior related to seeking approval.

Children rewarded for effort outperform those praised for intelligence.

Feedback attached to a child's identity affects their behavior and performance.

It's important for parents and teachers to focus on effort-based feedback.

Study shows intelligence praise decreases performance, while effort praise increases it.

Rewarding effort over identity labels is crucial for improving performance.

Self-affirmation based on identity labels can undermine performance over time.

Transcripts

The research paper I'd like to discuss briefly

that beautifully embodies the runway

that led to the discovery of growth mindset

is a paper from Dr. Carol Dweck,

as well as her colleague, Claudia Mueller.

And the title of the paper essentially says it all.

The title is Praise for intelligence

can undermine children's motivation and performance,

right?

That should be surprising that praise for intelligence

can undermine motivation and performance.

I would've thought, and I think many people probably believe

that if you tell a child or an adult

that they're really good at something

and you're genuine about that feedback,

meaning they're performing well,

and you say, great, you're doing really well,

you're so smart, you're so talented,

that their performance would continue to improve,

that it would bolster their motivation

to engage in that activity, which hopefully they enjoy.

But regardless, provided that it's a safe activity,

it's educational, what have you,

that it would serve to encourage them, right?

The kid thinks not only am I engaging in this activity,

but I'm getting positive feedback,

presumably from people that I care about

or whose opinion I care about,

wouldn't that serve to elevate performance?

It does not.

In fact, the exact opposite happens.

So I'll just give you a few of the key takeaways

from this study.

The way it was done is very interesting.

They essentially gave feedback about performance

that was linked up with a child's intelligence,

telling kid they're smart, they're talented,

that they can learn things really easily

or that they're very good at learning this sort of thing,

and they called that intelligence feedback.

Or they gave them what was called effort feedback.

The simple way to think about effort feedback

is that it's more attached to verbs as opposed to labels.

So effort, feedback consists of things like

you tried really hard on that problem,

it was great the way that you applied effort,

it was great the way that you persisted,

it was great the way

that even when you got the wrong answer,

you spent 10 minutes thinking about it

and then you tried again and again,

or in some cases,

even if they didn't get the right answer telling them,

well, even though you didn't get the right answer,

it's really terrific that you continue to try, okay?

So intelligence feedback was the sort of feedback

that was tied to labels of identity,

things like smart, talented, et cetera.

Whereas effort feedback was tied to verbs, choices,

behavioral and cognitive choices that children made

in an effort to learn or get better at something.

So in this study, which included over a hundred children,

they either got the intelligence type feedback

or the effort type feedback,

or there was a control group

that didn't get either the intelligence

or the effort type feedback,

and then they looked at a number of different outcomes.

So I'll just highlight a few examples of what they found.

First of all,

the kids that got the intelligence based feedback

when they were then later offered problem sets

that were either challenging or were of the sort

that they knew they could perform well on,

they tended to select problems

that they knew they could perform well on.

These were what were referred to as performance goals.

In other words, they picked problems

that allowed them to continue to get the praise

that they had received previously

about being smart or talented.

Whereas the kids that got feedback about their strong effort

when later presented with problems

that were either easy or hard, more often than not,

they picked the harder problems

that stood to teach them more.

So that's striking.

It says that if you tell a kid

that they're smart or talented

and that's the reason why they perform well,

when they encounter challenges,

they are likely to go with the least amount of challenge

so that they can continue

to receive that praise or feedback.

Whereas if you receive praise and feedback

for your strong effort,

then later you tend to pick

environments, problem sets, et cetera,

that allow you to exert the very effort

that got you the praise in the first place.

So in both cases,

these children are essentially attached to the praise,

right?

In some sense.

I mean, we like to think that they enjoy these activities

and they're benefiting from them as well.

But in both cases, the praise really serves

to reinforce a certain pattern of behavior.

But in the case of giving intelligence feedback,

the kids are really just trying to reinforce being told

that they're smart or talented,

as opposed to reinforcing the engagement in the activity

that got them the praise in the first place.

And the converse is also true when kids are told,

hey, you really tried hard and that's great,

or, I like how you persistent, or you're so persistent,

I can really see how persistent you are

in trying to get the right answer,

even if you don't get the right answer.

Well, then when you present those kids

with additional challenges,

they work very hard to stay in challenge.

And guess what? No surprise.

The kids that are rewarded for effort

and that continue to pick harder problems

outperform the kids

that are given the intelligence praise and feedback

by a large margin.

So what does this tell us?

This tells us that the narratives that we hear from others,

of course, reinforce certain patterns of behavior.

What else does this tell us?

This tells us that if you're a parent or teacher,

you have to be very careful about giving feedback to a child

that is attached to their identity around an endeavor,

especially if they're performing well at that endeavor,

right?

Now, of course,

if a child is not performing well at something,

you also don't want to tell them that they're stupid, right?

You don't want to tell them that they're deficient, right?

But, that's a rare occurrence in the classroom

one would hope,

that's a rare occurrence on the field, one would hope.

But what's very common, very, very common

is that when we see children or adults performing well,

we tend to give them identity labels as a way

to try and reinforce whatever behavior

we observe and we like.

Now the other thing they looked at in this study,

besides whether or not these kids would pick

hard or easier challenges down the line

were the actual raw performance on cognitive problems.

And these data, I must say, are just so interesting.

They took the kids

and they gave them all the same problem sets,

and all the kids across the board,

whether or not they were getting

intelligence praise or effort praise,

or they were in the control group

were performing more or less the same way.

They were getting some of these questions right,

some of these questions wrong.

Then they gave them praise

after they completed those problems.

They either got intelligence praise,

you're so smart, you're so talented

or they got effort praise,

you tried so hard, you really persisted, that's fantastic.

Then later they gave them another set of problems

and they looked at performance.

Now remember, the first time around

all the kids got some of the questions right

and some of the questions wrong,

so there's room for improvement for everybody.

What they found was absolutely striking.

The kids that were in the control group,

so they didn't get any specific form of praise,

they performed more or less the same way as they did before.

So if they were getting

75% of the answers right the first time,

they got 75% of the answers right the second time.

25% wrong in both cases.

The kids that were in the intelligence praise group

the you are so smart, you're so talented, praise group,

their performance went down significantly.

Whereas the kids that were in the effort praise group,

their performance increased significantly, okay?

So this is a bi-directional effect

where giving intelligence praise reduces performance,

and giving effort praise improves performance,

which is absolutely striking

and tells you everything you need to know,

which is if you're a parent, you're a teacher,

and, of course, as we all give ourselves feedback,

rewarding yourself for effort

is the best way to improve performance.

Rewarding yourself based on identity labels,

so smart, so talented, you're a great athlete, et cetera,

all that stare in the mirror and do self affirmation stuff

can actually undermine performance,

and in fact, it does undermine performance.

It may not do it right away, but eventually it does.

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