Why can praising intelligence undermine performance?

Praising intelligence or talent often attaches identity to outcomes. When individuals who receive this praise face challenges or failure, their identity feels threatened, leading them to avoid hard problems and potentially performing worse in subsequent tasks, and even misrepresenting their performance.

How does effort-based praise impact learning and performance?

Effort-based praise, which focuses on verbs like 'persisted' or 'tried hard,' reinforces the process of learning and problem-solving. It encourages individuals to choose harder challenges, persist longer, and ultimately leads to significantly improved performance over time.

What happens in the brain when someone with a growth mindset makes an error?

Studies using ERPs show that people with a growth mindset tend to direct more cognitive attention to understanding errors and what led to them, rather than dwelling on the emotional response. This cognitive appraisal supports effective learning and correction.

What is the 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset?

The 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset is the belief that stress can mobilize resources and improve performance, rather than solely debilitating it. Research shows that simply being taught this can lead to better work performance, especially on hard tasks, and positive physiological shifts.

How can one cultivate a 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset?

Cultivating this mindset involves learning true information about how stress can enhance performance, consciously reappraising uncomfortable sensations (like elevated heart rate) as resource mobilization, and placing oneself in safe, adaptive stressful situations to practice this cognitive shift.

How do growth mindset and 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset work together?

When combined, these two mindsets act synergistically. Learning about both provides a greater buffering effect against anticipatory and actual stress, leading to enhanced physiological responses (e.g., increased peripheral blood flow) and significantly improved performance and self-regard.

What specific tools can be used to build a growth mindset and stress-is-enhancing mindset?

Key tools include focusing praise on verbs (effort, persistence) rather than labels, analytically dissecting errors, seeking help from others for understanding performance, and acting as your own teacher by explaining these concepts to others (or yourself).

Why is the analogy 'mind is like a muscle' potentially misleading for learning?

While the mind does get stronger with strain similarly to muscles, the analogy falls short because muscle training provides immediate sensory feedback of growth (the 'pump'). In contrast, mental learning often involves an uncomfortable 'strain' (frustration, difficulty) without immediate positive sensations of improvement, making it harder to perceive the ongoing learning process.

What is the ultimate 'umbrella' mindset for these concepts?

The overarching mindset is the belief that mindsets themselves are powerful, can have a real effect, and can be cultivated over time. This foundational belief supports the effort required to build both growth and stress-is-enhancing mindsets.

Key Moments

How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset

Andrew Huberman

Science & Technology3 min read102 min video

Jul 17, 2023|1,982,506 views|40,545|1,548

andrew huberman huberman lab podcast huberman podcast dr. andrew huberman neuroscience huberman lab andrew huberman podcast the huberman lab podcast science podcast growth mindset personal development self-improvement

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Key Moments

TL;DR

Embrace a growth mindset by focusing on effort, learning from errors, and reframing stress as enhancement.

Key Insights

Praise for talent or intelligence can undermine future performance and motivation.

Praise for effort and persistence fosters continued learning and improved performance.

A growth mindset involves viewing abilities as malleable and developing through effort.

A 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset reframes physiological stress responses as performance boosters.

Combining growth and stress-enhancing mindsets synergistically improves learning and performance.

Shifting internal narratives from fixed labels to effort-based 'verbs' is crucial for development.

UNDERSTANDING THE GROWTH MINDSET VERSUS THE FIXED MINDSET

The growth mindset, pioneered by Carol Dweck, posits that abilities are not fixed but can be developed through dedication and hard work. This contrasts with a fixed mindset, where individuals believe their talents and intelligence are innate and unchangeable. A core tenet of the growth mindset is distancing one's identity from performance outcomes and instead attaching it to the process of learning and effort itself. This perspective is crucial for embracing challenges and optimizing performance and learning potential.

THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF PRAISING INTELLIGENCE

Research, notably from Carol Dweck's lab, highlights that praising children or adults for their intelligence or talent can inadvertently undermine their motivation and performance. When individuals receive praise tied to their identity (e.g., 'you are so smart'), they become risk-averse, avoiding challenges to maintain that positive feedback. This intelligence praise can lead to decreased performance over time and even encourage misrepresentation of results to preserve their perceived intellectual status.

THE POWER OF EFFORT-BASED PRAISE AND VERBS

Conversely, feedback focused on effort, persistence, and the process of learning (termed 'verbs' rather than 'labels') significantly enhances performance and motivation. When individuals are praised for their hard work, their dedication, and their strategies in overcoming difficulties, they are more likely to embrace challenging tasks and persist through setbacks. This type of praise reinforces the value of the learning process itself, leading to sustained improvement and increased resilience.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MINDSETS AND ERROR PROCESSING

Neuroscience provides insight into why these mindsets differ in their impact. Studies using electroencephalography (EEG) show that individuals with a fixed mindset exhibit a stronger emotional and neural response to errors, often due to anterior cingulate cortex activation linked to emotional processing. In contrast, those with a growth mindset exhibit more cognitive appraisal of errors, directing attentional resources to understand and learn from mistakes, often involving the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with cognitive control and appraisal.

THE 'STRESS-IS-ENHANCING' MINDSET AS A SYNERGISTIC TOOL

To further enhance the effects of a growth mindset, adopting a 'stress-is-enhancing' mindset is crucial. This involves understanding that physiological responses to stress, such as an elevated heart rate or focused attention, are not inherently negative but can be mobilizers of resources that improve performance. Information and education about the adaptive benefits of stress, rather than its detrimental effects, can lead to individuals experiencing stress as an opportunity for growth and challenge.

PRACTICAL TOOLS FOR CULTIVATING GROWTH AND ENHANCING MINDSETS

Implementing these mindsets involves practical strategies. Key tools include adopting both a growth and a stress-enhancing mindset, focusing praise and feedback on 'verbs' (actions and effort) rather than 'labels' (innate qualities), analyzing errors analytically and seeking help from others, and even writing a letter to oneself or others explaining these principles. Reframing the mind as adaptable, akin to how muscles grow with effort, reinforces that challenges are learning opportunities, not indicators of fixed limitations.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Supplements

●Software & Apps

●Companies

●Organizations

●Books

●Studies Cited

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Applying Growth Mindset & Stress-Is-Enhancing Mindset

Practical takeaways from this episode

Do This

Actively define what you are good/bad at and why, tracing back the origins of these beliefs to understand underlying narratives.

Shift your internal and external narratives from identity-based labels (e.g., 'smart,' 'talented') to effort-based verbs (e.g., 'persisted,' 'tried hard').

Praise effort, persistence, and problem-solving, especially when performance is good, to foster continued improvement.

When encountering errors, focus cognitive attention on analyzing what led to the error, rather than getting caught up in immediate emotional responses.

Educate yourself and others about the brain's capacity for neuroplasticity and how effort drives learning.

Reappraise stress as a mobilization of resources that can enhance focus and performance, rather than solely a debilitating experience.

Place yourself in safe, stressful adaptive circumstances to practice leveraging stress for growth.

Seek help and input from others to understand both your failures and successes through an effort-based lens.

Act as your own teacher by writing a letter to someone else (or yourself) explaining growth mindset and stress-enhancing mindset principles.

Avoid This

Avoid giving or internalizing identity labels like 'smart' or 'talented,' as they can undermine future performance, especially when facing challenges.

Do not lie about your performance to preserve ego, as this is a sinister consequence of intelligence praise.

Don't solely rely on passive emotional motivation; consciously apply cognitive processes to foster motivation.

Avoid viewing frustration, struggle, or difficulty as signs of inherent limitations; instead, see them as indicators of expanding limits.

Do not solely focus on the raw, uncomfortable sensations of stress; instead, apply a cognitive appraisal to understand its potential benefits.

Common Questions

Growth mindset is the belief that abilities are malleable and can improve through effort, while a fixed mindset assumes abilities are static. Growth mindset encourages embracing challenges and seeing effort as the path to mastery, and is tied to neuroplasticity.

Topics

Learning Strategies Neuroscience & the Brain Learning & Education Mindset & Self-Improvement Growth Mindset Stress Management Cognitive Psychology Performance Enhancement Effort-based Praise

Mentioned in this video

Supplements

Momentous Supplements

A supplement company partnered with the Huberman Lab podcast, providing supplements for sleep, hormone support, and focus, as discussed on previous episodes.

AG1

A vitamin, mineral, and probiotic drink with adaptogens taken daily by Andrew Huberman since 2012 to meet foundational nutrition needs and buffer stress.

People

Andrew Huberman

Host of the Huberman Lab podcast and a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine, who introduces and explains the concepts of growth mindset and stress-enhancing mindset.

David Yeager

A researcher who expanded on Carol Dweck's work, exploring how growth mindset and stress-enhancing mindsets can be applied in various settings, and now a professor at the University of Texas Austin.

Carol Dweck

The founder of the growth mindset field and a colleague of Andrew Huberman in the psychology department at Stanford University, whose classic work is explored in detail.

Urie Treisman

A calculus professor whose approach to teaching acknowledges student struggle as a sign of deepening understanding, aligning with a stress-is-enhancing mindset.

Alia Crum

A professor of psychology at Stanford, a division one athlete, and a licensed clinical psychologist who runs a lab working on stress-related mindsets and provided a specific definition of mindset.

Robin Carhart-Harris

A researcher whose work on ego dissolution was discussed in a previous podcast episode.

Companies

ROKA

A brand of eyeglasses and sunglasses known for high quality, lightweight designs that don't slip, initially created for sports but also offering styles for everyday wear.

Eight Sleep

A company that makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating, and sleep tracking capabilities, highlighted for its role in optimizing sleep temperature.

InsideTracker

A personalized nutrition platform that analyzes blood and DNA data to provide insights and protocols for health goals, including measures of ApoB and insulin for cardiovascular health.

Concepts

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

A brain area involved in various functions, where activity in the rostral/anterior part correlates with emotional responses to errors (fixed mindset) and activity in the dorsal part correlates with cognitive appraisal (growth mindset).

Books

Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance

A research paper by Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller, published in 1998, which demonstrated that identity-based praise can harm performance over time, whereas effort-based praise improves it.

A Synergistic Mindsets Intervention Protects Adolescents From Stress

A full article published by David Yeager and colleagues in Nature in July 2022, demonstrating that education on both growth mindset (2022) and stress-is-enhancing mindset can protect adolescents from stress and improve performance.

Rethinking Stress: The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response

A research paper by Alia Crum, which illustrates that how one thinks about stress profoundly impacts the physiological and performance reactions to it.

Studies & Research

Mangels et al.

A study co-authored by Carol Dweck, titled 'Why Do Beliefs About Intelligence Influence Learning Success? A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Model,' which used ERPs to reveal how fixed and growth mindsets differ in brain activity during error processing.

Organizations

Nature

An 'Apex Journal' where David Yeager and colleagues published a significant article in July 2022 on synergistic mindsets protecting adolescents from stress.

Stanford School of Medicine

The institution where Andrew Huberman is a professor and where much of the discussed research on mindsets originated.

Software & Apps

Trier Social Stress Test

A standard laboratory protocol used to induce stress by requiring subjects to perform a public speech and mental arithmetic in front of an evaluative audience.

Event-Related Potentials

A neuroscientific measurement technique using electrodes on the scalp to detect electrical potentials that correlate with shifts in brain activity, used in studies to understand brain responses to errors.