The Smart Trap

By Julia Heinz

Telling children they are smart can give rise to a plethora of negative outcomes. While this form of praise is intended to make a child feel good about themselves, in reality it can have long-term costly effects. Calling a child “smart” assigns them this label, leading their future choices to reinforce this given identity.

At first glance, a child making choices that align with the identity of “smart” seems beneficial. We imagine this child challenging themselves and developing new strategies to “succeed”. However, in reality, living up to the given identity of “smart” leads to a fixed mindset and fear of failure, resulting in surface level learning experiences.

When we call a child smart, we present “smart” as a trait, not as a process that requires practice, failure, and patience. Culturally, being smart is seen in a positive light, commonly offered as a compliment or in an attempt to raise someone’s self esteem. Naturally, once labeled “smart”, a child becomes highly motivated to live up to this claim, not only to maintain this given identity but also in order to win praise and feel good about themselves.

Labeling a Sense of Identity

Most of us will agree that labeling a child with a trait that is culturally viewed as “negative” such as being lazy or not good at math, could have devastating effects on that child’s mindset and engagement with school. However, it is essential to notice that whether we are “negatively” or “positively” labeling a child, any label will affect a child’s sense of identity. When a child is called smart, they tend to develop a fixed mindset, understanding “smart” to be a part of their identity that should be stable. In contrast, a growth mindset is the understanding that learning is a malleable process that requires constant reflection and adjustment.

Developing Mindset

While we often expect children to take on the mindset of the adults around them, Haimovits and Dweck (2017) found that instead, the mindset a child develops is highly dependent on the direction of the praise that is offered to them.

When a child receives feedback that is oriented at who they are (“you’re so smart”) rather than the process they took (“your patience paid off”), they understand their results to be reflective of their identity, rather than the effort they put in. Due to the higher weight given to the opinions of teachers and parents, children are likely to take personoriented feedback quite seriously, reinforcing a fixed mindset.

A Fixed Mindset

How does having a fixed mindset affect your child’s learning experience? When a child has been told that they are smart they believe it is in their best interest to maintain this identity. As Dweck (1999) states, “if someone looked at your performance and told you you were really smart, would that make you eager for challenges that might show your deficiencies? Or would that make you want to keep on performing well and keep your label “smart”? (p.117).

Time and time again research has shown that when children hold fixed mindsets about being smart, they do not see the benefit of challenging themselves and potentially losing this identity.

In another study, children who were praised for their intelligence after completing a first task, were “no longer interested in challenges and learning”. On the following round of tasks these children were more likely to “opt for the task that would [make them] keep on looking smart” as opposed to facing a task that could challenge them. (Dweck 1999, p117).

Furthermore, when this group experienced failure on the second task they were less likely to enjoy doing the third task and less likely to persist. These studies indicate that once students have been praised for their intelligence, doing poorly (or the thought of doing poorly) can become a debilitating experience as they fear the loss of the glorified identity of “smart”.

Zhao et. al (2017) observed whether children as young as three years old would be willing to cheat on a test in order to maintain an identity of “smart” that they were primed with.They found that the children who were explicitly told they were smart during the practice round were significantly more likely to cheat on the test in order to maintain this title, bringing to light the influential power of praising the person rather than the process they undertook.

Fostering a Growth Mindset

Fostering a growth mindset allows children to learn how to learn, and to see learning and development as a process, rather than as a fixed product.The power of developing a growth mindset has even been shown to buffer against the effects of having a low socioeconomic status, which is a well known predictor of academic outcome (Claro et.al, 2017). Importantly, it seems as though hav- our intentions are good, praising a child for their ability inadvertently puts a label on them that could promote a fixed mindset, emotional distress, and long term “bad” habits like cheating and avoiding challenges.

Second, what do the reactions we have to our own failures and successes model to children in terms of the process of learning?

Expressing these experiences through the lens of growth and development can model to children what a growth mindset looks like. By becoming more mindful of how we frame success and failure, we empower children to shape their own learning and lives.

References ing a growth mindset allows a child to see a potential for change and to feel empowered in making these changes.

So, telling children they are smart does them more harm than good, but are we ready to change our verbal habits in order to better support our children in their learning and development?

Mindful Changes

To take away: research indicates that we must be mindful of the words we use in response to a child’s successes or failures. Even when

Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 113(31), 8664-8668

Dweck, C. S., & Taylor & Francis eBooks A-Z. (1999). Selftheories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology Press.

Haimovitz, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2017). The origins of children’s growth and fixed mindsets: New research and a new proposal. Child Development, 88(6), 1849-1859.

Zhao, L., Heyman, G. D., Chen, L., & Lee, K. (2017). Praising young children for being smart promotes cheating. Psychological Science, 28(12), 1868-1870.

What do the reactions we have to our own failures and successes model to children in terms of the process of learning?

Expressing these experiences through the lens of growth and development can model to children what a growth mindset looks like.