Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this
popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences
for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence
were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised
for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more lowability
attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children
praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work,
who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how
achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of
performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth.