Process praise — naming the specific strategy a child used — is significantly more effective than effort praise ('you worked hard') and dramatically better than intelligence praise ('you're so smart').
2
Children praised for intelligence after success subsequently choose easier tasks, persist less, and enjoy challenges less — the opposite of what parents intend.
3
Saying 'not yet' in isolation has near-zero effect on academic outcomes; it only works when paired with a concrete strategy for how to improve.
Research Data
% of Children Choosing a Challenging Follow-Up Task by Praise Type
Percentage choosing a challenging task after receiving each type of praise. Dweck lab experiments; replicated across 43 mindset studies (Psychological Science meta-analysis, 2019).
Children praised for intelligence subsequently chose easier tasks and showed less persistence — children praised for specific strategies made the opposite choices. The effect holds across 43 mindset intervention studies (Psychological Science, 2019).