For some people, it seems like the sky’s the limit, while for others, the ceiling is a bit lower, closer to Earth. We sometimes see this dichotomy as optimists versus pessimists; the ambitious versus the less motivated. Classic bits of folklore starting with, “There are two types of people in this world,” typically fail to account for the people in between, but that doesn’t mean we can’t exist on a continuum of two perspectives.

One of these continua of unique perspectives is mindset theory: the idea that people hold differing beliefs regarding the malleability of human attributes.¹ On one extreme is the view that these attributes, such as intelligence or personality, can be changed through effort and determination, while the other extreme is that these attributes are innate and remain fixed over time. Research has explored these two forms of mindsets and found that such lay beliefs can predict a variety of personal outcomes.

The main idea of mindset theory is that our beliefs about our abilities can shape how we think, feel, and behave in any given situation. It suggests that a student’s beliefs about their intelligence can influence their educational outcomes, or that an athlete’s mindset about the role of talent and effort can affect how they respond to training setbacks. Those who believe that their skills, abilities, and personality traits can evolve tend to approach their achievement goals with effort-based strategies, while those who believe these traits are largely fixed tend to avoid challenges that could result in failure.¹⁷ People with a growth mindset are thought to possess greater resilience because they generally view setbacks as opportunities for improvement, while those with a fixed mindset are more likely to attribute failures to personal shortcomings or “innate incompetence,” which can hurt mental well-being.

Mindset theory suggests that everyone falls somewhere on this spectrum between fixed and growth. This idea has inspired a substantial body of research exploring the influence of mindset on behavior in various contexts, from educational attainment and job performance to athletic achievement, creativity, and interpersonal judgment.

Implicit Theories: Beliefs about the nature of human attributes and abilities. People hold a range of different implicit theories about the malleability of personal traits.

Growth Mindset: The belief that human attributes and abilities can change over time; they can be acquired with enough effort and determination (also known as incremental theory).

Fixed Mindset: The belief that human attributes and abilities are mostly static and innate (also known as entity theory).

Group Malleability: The belief that groups are not set in their ways, but have the capacity to change their beliefs and behavior. When it comes to intergroup interactions and conflict resolution, the idea that group-level beliefs are malleable tends to foster greater willingness to engage with outgroups.¹⁸

Neuroplasticity: Our brain’s ability to change, reorganize, and develop throughout life.19 The brain forms new neural connections as we learn new things, allowing it to adapt in response to new experiences. Neuroplasticity provides the neurological basis for the idea that our abilities can develop with effort and experience. In fact, teaching students the metaphor “the brain is like a muscle” can promote the development of a growth mindset.²⁰

Cognitive Inertia: The tendency for one’s way of thinking to resist change, often manifesting as a status quo bias, or a preference for the current state of affairs. Inertia is a common barrier in the development of new mental frameworks or mindsets.

Mindset theory can be attributed to the psychologist Carol Dweck. Her work on mindset began in the 1970s after observing stark differences in children’s reactions to challenges and setbacks.² Dweck noticed that some children were averse to challenges, while others actively sought them. These observations later led Dweck to consider whether one’s approach to challenges depends on how people interpret the meaning of failure: whether this view relates to the belief that ability is something static and permanent, or something that can be developed. In other words, she sought to discover whether people are discouraged or motivated by failure. 

This insight ignited a broad range of research from Dweck and her colleagues, exploring these implicit theories in a variety of domains, from academic and occupational success to interpersonal relationships.¹ For example, Dweck found that children who attributed their failures to factors outside of their control, such as their lack of ability, showed a more helpless response than those who attributed failures to controllable factors, such as effort.²

Mindset theory has since inspired a range of interventions, especially in education. In the early 2000s, several studies showed that interventions teaching students the incremental view of intelligence led to modest improvements in grades, motivation, and test scores.² These findings have inspired classroom practices focused on praising students for their effort rather than ability. Beyond academic performance, mindset research has also inspired implicit theory-based interventions in organizational settings, sports, clinical psychology, and health.²

Carol Dweck

An American psychologist and Professor at Stanford University, Dweck’s work on mindset theory became widely popularized following the publication of her 2006 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The book brought concepts like fixed mindset and growth mindset into mainstream discourse, inspiring interventions to promote a growth mindset across a wide variety of disciplines. Dweck’s TED Talk on the subject has received over 17 million views. 

David Yeager

Yeager has been a key figure in expanding the practical applications of Dweck’s mindset theory. As a developmental psychologist and cofounder of the Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute, Yeager has conducted several large-scale studies examining growth mindset interventions to help teenagers and adolescents overcome psychological barriers to success, and he continues to design mindset-based educational interventions for real-world settings today.²¹ In 2019, Yeager co-wrote a perspective article with Dweck exploring the evolution of mindset research across the decades.²²

What is the neuroscience behind mindset theory?

The neuroscience perspective on mindset theory revolves around the idea of neuroplasticity: the ability of the brain to change and reorganize with experience. Neural networks become “stronger” or more efficient with learning, revealing how effort can lead to improvements in performance. Explaining this neural mechanism to students can be effective in promoting a growth mindset.²⁰ 

Interestingly, a growth mindset is reflected in physical brain mechanisms involved in learning, error processing, and emotional regulation. By measuring brain activity, studies have found a link between growth mindset and activation in certain areas of the brain, namely the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)—involved in learning and control—and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is involved in monitoring errors and adapting behavior.¹⁹ On a neural level, students exhibiting a growth mindset about intelligence show an enhanced focus on learning after making mistakes. Not only is a growth mindset linked to greater motivation to correct errors, but it’s also associated with a lower emotional response to negative feedback. 

Can mindset impact mental health?

Mindset can have a significant influence on mental health. Research shows that a growth mindset is linked to more adaptive ways of tolerating frustrations and disappointments, promoting resilience against inevitable life setbacks, and fostering effective self-regulation strategies. In one study, university students with a growth mindset reported significantly fewer mental health issues and lower stress due to life events than students exhibiting a fixed mindset.¹⁷ Other research shows that a growth mindset about personality—believing that personality can grow and change—is associated with lower rates of depressive symptoms.²⁴ These findings suggest that psychological interventions teaching a growth mindset may be valuable for improving well-being.

What effect does the growth mindset have on stereotype threat?

Stereotype threat occurs when someone fears confirming a negative stereotype about their social group, often causing anxiety, undermining performance, and ultimately reinforcing the stereotype they feared. This can perpetuate racial achievement gaps and gender disparities in educational settings.²⁵ The same goes for low-income students, who may have lower expectations for success. However, some research suggests that a growth mindset may help reduce the impact of stereotypes on academic achievement. One study found that lower-income students with a growth mindset had math and language scores comparable to high-income peers with a fixed mindset, suggesting that mindset training could help buffer academic achievement inequalities.²³ 

Overall, negatively stereotyped students are less susceptible to stereotype threat when they are taught about the growth mindset, even if evidence of stereotyping remains high. Rather than denying that inequalities exist, the growth mindset portrays abilities as malleable and acquirable. This combats the fixed-mindset messages enforced by stereotypes and increases student motivation, especially in challenging learning environments.

Are mindsets innate or learned?

Mindsets are largely learned rather than innate. Children don’t appear to be born with either a fixed or a growth mindset, but develop these over time through their experiences at home and in school. Dweck and her colleagues explored where mindsets come from by examining how children learn from being praised for their successes.²² They found that praising children for intelligence (person praise) was more likely to induce a fixed mindset than praising children for their effort (process praise). Similarly, person-focused feedback was more likely to foster beliefs in stable traits and lead to learned helplessness in the face of failure. Outside of the lab, research has revealed a real-world relationship between parent praise and their children’s mindsets.²² This research gives us a valuable window into how children develop mindsets and how these learned implicit theories can shape their self-conception.

Mindset has been influential in psychology because it has profoundly impacted education, government, and business. In an article for BuzzFeed News, Tim Chivers highlighted the prominence of the growth mindset in organizations by pointing out the hiring practices of both NASA and Google, which factor in a growth mindset, as well as a recommendation by the British government to hire for growth mindsets. He also cited a Harvard Business Review article titled, How Companies Can Profit from a “Growth Mindset,” and noted the endorsement of Dweck’s book by Bill Gates. It is safe to say that mindset theory has caught the attention of many.

The popularization of mindset theory is almost entirely a product of Carol Dweck’s research and promotion of the concept. Dweck and her proponents claim that individuals with a growth mindset believe that their characteristics and abilities can be changed with effort, and over time, these individuals are more likely to adopt learning goals, choose challenging tasks, and employ adaptive strategies to improve their abilities.³ Those with a fixed mindset, however, are more likely to adopt performance goals and prioritize positive assessment over learning.^4,5

Organizational Implications of Mindset Theory

These differences in behavior can have considerable ramifications on both an individual and systemic level, as they may directly impact the decision-making process for a variety of stakeholders within an organization. In their review on the growth mindset for human resource development, Soo Jeoung Han and Vicki Stieha of Boise State University cite studies that have identified a growth mindset as a factor in enhancing workplace engagement, employee productivity, mentoring, leadership, openness to feedback, and creativity within organizations.⁶

Mindset and Education

Although mindsets tend to lack an association with cognitive ability, a large body of literature has explored the effects of mindset on outcomes, particularly within education. As much of Dweck and Yeager’s educational research has suggested, individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to have higher grades, which has led to the implementation of mindset training in schools across the world to increase growth mindsets among students. 

Encouraging students to develop a growth mindset can help them view challenges as opportunities for improvement, increasing their enjoyment and motivation in school. This can be particularly valuable for students with learning disabilities who may feel discouraged by academic challenges.²³ To support these students, school psychologists are well-positioned to help educators implement mindset interventions in learning environments, while also guiding parents in promoting a growth mindset at home.

Cultural Differences in Mindset Effects

Interestingly, however, one review on the relationship between implicit theories regarding intelligence and academic achievement found that the relationship becomes more nuanced when considering cultural differences.⁷ In this research, the association between a growth mindset and achievement was positive in Eastern populations, while Europeans were more likely to exhibit a positive relationship between a fixed mindset and achievement. The authors of the review posit that these cultural differences may stem from tendencies in Eastern, collectivist cultures to encourage students to value the learning process over academic achievement, whereas Western, individualist cultures may place greater value on positive assessment, prioritizing individual outcomes.

The criticisms surrounding mindset theory are arguably as extensive as the research on mindset itself. Some of the main criticisms have to do with the theory’s lack of consistent empirical support and its overemphasis on the value of individual effort, which could potentially open the door to blaming individuals for systemic issues.

Critiques of Research Validity

Some academics have highlighted that many of the popular studies on mindset have come from a small cohort of researchers, pointing out that the meta-analyses are filled with Dweck’s articles.⁸ Questions have also been raised over questionable statistical methods used by Dweck and her colleagues. Andrew Gelman, a statistician at Columbia University, said that their research designs have enough degrees of freedom that they the data could be used to support just about any theory.⁹ Outside of Dweck’s work, the evidence supporting the effects of a growth mindset is weak. A 2018 study, for example, found small correlations between mindset and academic outcomes, with mindset interventions having a minimal effect on achievement.¹⁰

Yue Li and Timothy Bate of the University of Edinburgh published a study in 2019 that further questions the validity of mindset theory. “We found little or no support for the idea that a growth mindset is beneficial for children’s responses to failure or school attainment,” the authors wrote. “Our findings across multiple substantial studies with active controls as well as real-life outcomes across time suggest that mindset theory has no impact on school grades, response to challenge, or goal orientation.”¹¹ Also in 2019, a randomized controlled trial in England that included over 100 schools found no significant effects of a growth mindset intervention on improving academic outcomes.¹²

Moral Criticisms of the Growth Mindset

Apart from issues of poor scientific integrity surrounding mindset theory, some have also offered moral critiques of the phenomenon. In an essay for Aeon, Carl Hendrick, the head of learning and research at Wellington College, wrote, “An enduring criticism of growth mindset theory is that it underestimates the importance of innate ability, specifically intelligence. If one student is playing with a weaker hand, is it fair to tell the student that she is just not making enough effort? Growth mindset—like its educational-psychology cousin “grit“—can have the unintended consequence of making students feel responsible for things that are not under their control: that their lack of success is a failure of moral character. This goes well beyond questions of innate ability to the effects of marginalization, poverty, and other socioeconomic disadvantages.”

Focus on Individual vs. Systemic Factors

In light of Hendrick’s words, the growth mindset begins to sound strikingly similar to the concept of meritocracy, an ideology that supposes people should be rewarded for their talents, abilities, and effort rather than their wealth or social class. Beliefs in a meritocracy have been shown to promote selfish and discriminatory behavior,¹³ which wouldn’t seem totally out of context in a system that promotes a growth mindset where individuals feel entitled to their success and view others as less capable due to insufficient effort or lack of motivation. The emphasis on individual mindset can shift responsibility away from systemic issues, neglecting how factors like leadership decisions or resource allocation can shape individual outcomes. 

It’s possible that Dweck wouldn’t agree with this analogy—she has responded to criticisms, arguing that her work is often misapplied or misunderstood—however, given the range of mindset applications in a variety of organizational and educational settings, it should be expected that the finer details behind mindset can get lost, giving way to problematic moral implications wherever the theory may manifest. 

Hiring and Leading with a Growth Mindset

As previously mentioned, Google has incorporated a growth mindset approach into its recruiting practices. In their 2017 book, How Google Works, former CEO Eric Schmidt and Alphabet Inc. adviser Jonathan Rosenberg explain how their “ideal candidates are the ones who prefer roller coasters, the ones who keep learning. These ‘learning animals’ have the smarts to handle massive change and the character to love it.”¹⁴ The idea to implement a growth mindset in their culture came from an extensive research program called Project Oxygen, which looked at over 10,000 manager impressions to identify key attributes of the best bosses.¹⁵ One of these attributes, which won’t come as any surprise to readers by now, is having a growth mindset.

Cigna, a global health services company, shares Google’s focus on a growth mindset. When the company began to reinforce a growth mindset in its workplace culture, it channeled the message through a variety of internal mechanisms, from town halls to “lunch and learn” sessions, asking employees for feedback. The growth mindset has since been incorporated into the company’s talent management guidelines, where managers and employees now set goals that stretch their abilities. Cigna also communicates an expectation for growth and progress, alongside a passion for curiosity and learning, in its job postings. These vacancies are meant to attract more than just specific abilities and expertise. According to the company, since these initiatives, employees have demonstrated more visible growth mindset behaviors, suggesting that implementing a growth mindset has resulted in lasting behavior change.¹⁶

Mindset Theory and Social Aggression

Implicit theories exist beyond learning and workplace performance, influencing how people think about relationships, form social judgments, and interact in the social world. In his research on mindset interventions, David Yeager found that some high school students have more of a fixed mindset around social qualities—that being good or bad, a winner or loser, etc., is a fixed trait.²² As a result, these students were more likely to view bullying behavior as a sign that the bully was fundamentally “bad,” and felt an increased desire for revenge.

Based on these findings, Yeager wanted to find out whether a growth mindset of personality intervention would help change students' mindsets and reduce aggressive behavior. The intervention involved six 45-minute, in-person sessions with trained workshop leaders discussing the malleability of social traits. The main message was that “people’s behaviors often come from thoughts and feelings, which live in the brain, and can be changed.” 

One month after the intervention, Yeager and colleagues measured students' aggression in response to a hypothetical bullying scenario. First, students participated in an online game where they experienced exclusion from their peers. They were then allowed to retaliate by deciding how much hot sauce to give to peers who excluded them. The growth mindset intervention substantially reduced the amount of hot sauce allocated to the “bullies” compared to the no-intervention control group and another group taught basic coping skills. Students from the growth mindset intervention were also more likely to write prosocial notes to accompany the hot sauce, suggesting that they felt greater empathy toward their peers.

I Think I am, Therefore I Am

This piece builds on the idea that implicit beliefs can translate to differences in organizational behavior. Phenomena like the white coat syndrome and stereotype threat can shape our perception of self-efficacy, in turn influencing how we perform in the workplace. We explore these effects and provide actionable takeaways to help managers strengthen employee self-confidence.

Behavioral Science Companies

Behavioral science companies specialize in applying principles from the field of psychology to nudge human behavior and tackle real-world problems. With the many interpretations of research on igniting employee engagement and internal innovation, it can help to have experts in behavioral science work with your organization to parse through the noise and evaluate concepts such as mindset from a scientific and pragmatic perspective.

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