Newsletter 100: Winter 2010 ..... back to the newsletter

Priming The Pump

Something interesting that has nothing to do with ranching.

Remember when Barbie told young girls that “Math Class Is Tough.” Do you think the girls playing with Barbie believed it? According to Dr. Dan Ariely, they did.

Ariely led a study in which a group of Asian American women took a math exam. Prior to the test they were asked several questions. Some of the women were asked questions about their gender. Others were asked questions related to their race.

Priming the group by having them focus on gender or race prior to the test affected the scores. Those who were primed with questions about gender had significantly poorer scores than those who were primed with questions on race.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck described similar results. She worked with over 400 5^th graders in 12 New York City schools. Each child was given a simple word puzzle. After completing the test, regardless of the score, each child received one of two praises. Half of the kids were praised for their intelligence with: “You must be really smart.” The other half was praised for their effort with: “You must have really worked hard.”

Following the compliment, the kids were given a choice. They could either do a word puzzle similar to the one they had just taken or they could choose a more difficult puzzle. Though it was harder, they were told they could learn a lot by trying to solve it. Most of the kids praised for their intelligence chose the easier test. In contrast, 90% of the kids praised for their hard work chose the harder test.

A final test was given to each student. This test had the same difficulty level as the first. The kids who had been praised for their hard work improved their scores an average of 30%. Average test scores dropped nearly 20% for the kids who had been randomly assigned to the “smart” group.

Of course, praising kids for their intelligence is not a bad thing, but it does misrepresent the reality of education. You don’t get smarter by being smart. You get smarter by working hard and taking risks, regardless of age or profession. We might consider that the next time the kids bring home their report card.

Ariely’s research underscores the power of our paradigms. When we see ourselves as capable, we become more capable. When we see ourselves as limited, we limit ourselves. When we believe that our success depends on something within our control, we work harder. When we believe success depends mainly on things beyond our control, we don’t work as hard.  Our paradigms determine our actions. Our actions determine our results.

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