DOI
10.1177/2372732220941
Abstract
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.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2020
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2020, SageJournals.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220941216
The definitive version is available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2372732220941216
Recommended Citation
Hoyt, C. L., & Burnette, J. L. (2020). Growth Mindset Messaging in Stigma-Relevant Contexts: Harnessing Benefits Without Costs. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(2), 157-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220941216
Included in
Leadership Studies Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Mental and Social Health Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Social Psychology Commons
