This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Parents and teachers might think telling kids "they're smart" is a helpful way to build self-confidence and support positive development. But according to new research, these kinds of statements might shape how kids approach academic tasks in ways we did not intend or expect.
In some cases, they might even encourage a child to cheat. When children experience success or failure, parents and teachers often provide feedback about why the success or failure occurred. This can help kids make sense of the world, feel good about themselves or know how to improve next time.
Researchers refer to these explanations as "attributions." According to longstanding research, the explanations we give for success or failure typically focus on one of four attributions: Whether they are accurate or not, research tells us these attributions can have a significant impact. They can shape how kids feel about the outcome of a test or task and how they might respond to challenges in the future. This is particularly true when the attributions come from people kids trust.
In new research conducted in China and published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, researchers considered how children ages 5–6 would respond when given different attributions about their performance. Specifically, they wanted to see whether different explanations would influence whether children cheated on future tests. Across two experiments, 210 children from urban middle-class backgrounds were given a test designed so they would experience success (an easy counting task).
After the test, children in one experiment were told by the experimenter, in varying ways, that they had succeeded because they were smart, worked hard, got lucky or the task was easy. Children in the second experiment were given no explanation for their success. After receiving feedback, all children were then given a temptation task.
They were asked to complete a short test and try to get as many answers right as possible. The task was designed with an opportunity for them to cheat when the adult left the room. Interestingly, children who were told they were smart immediately before the temptation task were almost twice as likely to cheat (64.3%) as children who were told they were lucky (38.1%), had worked hard (35.7%), had easy questions (21.4%) or received no explanation at all (35.7%).
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