Study finds professors’ attitudes affect students’ grades
I find this &quot;growth mindset&quot; stuff disturbing.<p>Let me start by saying that I don&#x27;t believe a word of it. The evidence I have seen suggests that intelligence is important in pretty much all intellectual activities, can be accurately measured by IQ tests, and <i>cannot</i> be improved. This is also, as far as I can tell, the strong consensus of the psychological community.<p>Assuming this is true, the proliferation of this &quot;growth mindset&quot; thinking has at least two scary thoughts:<p>1. If we encourage people to adopt a growth mindset because it will make them do better, than we are telling them what to believe <i>without caring</i> whether or not it is true. We are encouraging the adoption of <i>convenient</i> beliefs. Is that what educators should do?<p>2. It may lead to building an even more unequal society than the one we already have. Imagine the person who has no natural ability at all in a given field and does not succeed in it. If that person has a fixed mindset, they can conclude they have no ability and move on. If that person has a growth mindset, will they have any other option than to blame themselves for being lazy? A growth mindset means that mere bad luck is turned into <i>culpability.</i> Success is largely the product of luck, whether due to the wealth of one&#x27;s parents or one&#x27;s natural ability. If everyone in society adopts a growth mindset, then successful people can claim they are <i>morally superior</i> than people who fail.<p>Even assuming this research is accurate, it&#x27;s not some happy uplifting story about how being positive can solve all your problems. It&#x27;s a nasty ethical can of worms.