Effort as Person-Focused Praise: "Hard Worker" Has Negative Effects for Adults After a Failure

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Motivation Studies

Background:

• Research indicates process-focused praise benefits children's motivation post-failure.
• This benefit has been less explored in adult populations.
• Understanding praise effects in adults is crucial for applied settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of different praise types on adult motivation after failure.
• To compare person-focused praise (intelligence, effort) with process-focused praise (effort).
• To determine if findings from child studies generalize to adults.

Main Methods:

• 156 adult participants from Amazon's MTurk were studied.
• Participants received one of three praise types after initial success: 'high intelligence,' 'hard worker,' or 'worked hard.'
• Performance on subsequent difficult tasks and attributions for failure were assessed.

Main Results:

• 'Hard worker' praise led to more attributions of failure to intelligence compared to 'worked hard.'
• Participants receiving 'hard worker' praise reported lower success and enjoyment.
• 'High intelligence' praise increased attributions to intelligence post-failure compared to 'worked hard.'

Conclusions:

• The positive effects of process-focused praise seen in children were not replicated in this adult sample.
• Person-focused effort praise ('hard worker') appeared detrimental to adult motivation and attributions.
• Findings suggest adult responses to praise may differ significantly from children's, particularly in non-academic contexts.