A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, good strategies and help from others; a fixed mindset is the belief that they are set and cannot change much. The idea comes from the research of the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. It is a real finding about how people react to failure — but three decades of testing show its effect on grades is small, and there is no evidence that the belief itself makes anyone more intelligent.
Growth mindset meaning: where the idea comes from
In the research literature the two mindsets are called implicit theories of intelligence: an entity theory (intelligence is a fixed quantity) and an incremental theory (intelligence can be increased). Dweck popularised the everyday labels “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset” in her 2006 book Mindset. A mindset is measured by asking people how strongly they agree with statements such as “I have a certain amount of intelligence and I really can't do much to change it”. Disagreeing is scored as a growth mindset.
That measurement detail matters. A mindset is a belief about ability, not an ability. Two people with the same IQ can hold opposite mindsets, and the theory's claim is that the belief changes what they do next — not what they are capable of today.
Growth mindset vs fixed mindset: what the theory predicts
The table sets out the contrast as the original experiments measured it, rather than as posters describe it.
| Fixed mindset | Growth mindset | |
|---|---|---|
| Belief about intelligence | A fixed trait | Can be improved |
| Main goal on a task | Look capable (performance goal) | Get better at it (learning goal) |
| What a failure means | Evidence of low ability | Evidence the strategy or effort needs to change |
| After a failure | Less persistence, less enjoyment | More persistence |
The rows come from Claudia Mueller and Dweck's 1998 praise experiments. Across six studies, fifth graders praised for being intelligent cared more about looking capable than about learning, and after a failure they showed less persistence, less enjoyment and worse performance than children praised for effort. They also described intelligence as a fixed trait more often. In 2007 Lisa Blackwell, Kali Trzesniewski and Dweck followed 373 seventh graders and found that those who believed intelligence could grow saw their maths grades rise over two years of junior high school, while grades stayed flat for those who believed it was fixed.
How common is a growth mindset?
The largest measurement comes from PISA, the OECD's survey of 15-year-olds. In 2018 it asked students whether they agreed that “your intelligence is something about you that you can't change very much”. A majority across OECD countries disagreed — a growth mindset — including 68% of students in the United States. The share varies widely between countries: in the 2018 country reports it is, for example, 41% in Poland and 75% in Denmark. The OECD reports that holding a growth mindset is positively related to academic performance in almost every education system — a correlation, which on its own cannot show that the belief causes the better results.
Is growth mindset debunked? What the evidence shows
“Is growth mindset debunked?” is one of the questions people ask most about it, and the honest answer sits between the motivational posters and the backlash. The key studies, in order:
- 2018 — two meta-analyses. Victoria Sisk, Brooke Macnamara and colleagues pooled 273 studies of the link between mindset and academic achievement (365,915 students) and 43 studies of mindset interventions (57,155 students). Overall effects were weak for both. Some results suggested that students from low-income backgrounds or at academic risk might benefit.
- 2019 — a national experiment. David Yeager and a large team ran a pre-registered trial in a nationally representative sample of US secondary-school students. A single online session of under an hour improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased enrolment in advanced maths. Its effect on grades appeared where peer norms in the school aligned with the message.
- 2019 — a replication of the praise studies. Yue Li and Timothy Bates repeated the 1998 design with 624 children aged 9 to 13 in China. The manipulation was linked to one post-failure test score at a borderline level (p = .049) but to none of the eight motivation and attribution measures, and two further studies found no effect. Children's mindsets were unrelated to their grades.
- 2023 — two reviews that disagree. Macnamara and Alexander Burgoyne examined 63 intervention studies (97,672 students). The overall effect was d = 0.05 and not significant after correcting for publication bias; in the six highest-quality studies it was d = 0.02. They also found that authors with a financial incentive to report positive results published larger effects. In the same journal issue, Jeni Burnette and colleagues analysed 53 samples and reported d = 0.14 for academic achievement and d = 0.32 for mental health when interventions were delivered as designed to the groups expected to benefit most.
Read together, these studies agree on more than their titles suggest. A general mindset message delivered to all students does little for average grades. A well-delivered programme aimed at students who are struggling, in a school that backs it up, may help a little. Neither side of the debate supports the claim that mindset is a major driver of achievement.
Does a growth mindset make you smarter?
No study has shown that believing intelligence can grow increases intelligence. The most direct test used 5,653 university applicants in the Czech Republic who answered two mindset questions just before a scholastic aptitude test. Štěpán Bahník and Marek Vranka found that growth mindset was essentially unrelated to test scores (r = −.03), did not predict how many times applicants chose to retake the test, and did not predict who improved between attempts.
That does not make the fixed mindset correct either. Intelligence is neither fully fixed nor freely changeable. Differences between people are partly heritable, as set out in is intelligence genetic?, and measured intelligence also responds to sustained learning: each additional year of schooling is estimated to raise IQ by roughly 1 to 5 points. The brain changes where it is used, which is explained in neuroplasticity, and the routes that have actually moved IQ scores are compared in how to increase your IQ. The accurate position is that ability can grow through practice — and that believing so, on its own, adds little.
Growth mindset examples
These are examples of the belief in action. They describe the mindset; they are not techniques proven to raise results.
- After a poor mark: “Which kind of question did I lose points on, and how do I practise that?” rather than “I'm just bad at maths.”
- Facing a new skill: “I can't do this yet” rather than “I can't do this.”
- Choosing a task: picking the harder problem you might get wrong over the easy one you know you can solve.
- Giving praise: “That was a smart way to check your answer” rather than “You're so clever.”
What to take from the research
- Treat mindset as a small lever, not a foundation. The largest well-controlled effects are measured in fractions of a grade point, and mostly among students who were struggling.
- Pair the belief with the work. Believing ability can improve is only useful if it leads to deliberate practice on the specific skill; the practice is what changes ability.
- Be wary of confident self-assessment in either direction. How accurately people judge their own ability is a separate question, covered in the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Trust and scope notes
This page is educational. It summarises published research on beliefs about intelligence and is not psychological, educational or medical advice. Our IQ test measures reasoning performance; it does not measure mindset, and a score says nothing about whether you believe your ability can change.
IQ Revealed is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Carol Dweck, Stanford University, the OECD or its PISA programme, the publishers of Mindset, or any of the universities, journals or researchers named on this page. They are named so that each claim can be traced to the work that made it. Quoted phrases are taken from the published sources linked above.