Growth Mindset Messaging in Stigma-Relevant Contexts

Harnessing Benefits Without Costs

Bibliographic Data

ID22124689
AuthorsCrystal L Hoyt (0000-0001-9108-3910, University of Richmond, corresponding author), Jeni L Burnette (0000-0001-7548-8782, North Carolina State University)
Year2020
Volume7
Issue2
Pages157-164
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolicy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2372-7322 • E-ISSN: 2372-7330
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2372732220941216
OpenAlexW3091752101
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited45

Growth mindsets are increasingly used to promote learning, development, and health. The increased popularity resulted in scrutiny and disputes about utility. The current work reviews a perspective critical to the debate. Namely, we focus on emerging research that examines both the favorable and potentially adverse consequences of growth mindset messaging in stigma-relevant contexts. This double-edged sword model merges the mindset perspective with attribution theory and the psychological essentialism literature. In stigmatizing contexts and in isolation, growth mindsets can indirectly predict less positive outcomes, via personal responsibility for the problem, but more positive outcomes, via expectations for the potential to manage conditions in the future. Programmatic research illustrates how to tailor growth mindset messages and interventions, to avoid the potential costs of blame, yet keep the benefits of self-efficacy and weakened essentialism

Attribution · Blame · Essentialism · Mindset · Political science · Popularity · Psychological intervention · Public relations · Scrutiny · Sociology · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Psychology · Social Psychology

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