Scientists are genuinely divided on this question.

What's still open

What the evidence found 3 findings
Based on 7 sources:
PMC (PubMed Central) peer-reviewed View
Oxford Learning institutional View
Stanford News institutional View
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Dweck's 'Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance' (1998) peer-reviewed
Applications of Dweck's Model of Implicit Theories to Teachers' Self institutional View
Frontiers in Psychology peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
Based on 15 sources:
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
ScienceDirect peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
Harvard Study of Adult Development institutional View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Six Seconds blog View
Harvard Gazette institutional View
PMC peer-reviewed View
CNBC news View
PMC Article on Neuroimaging and Emotional Development peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate Publication on Neural Correlates peer-reviewed View
PMC Article on Prefrontal Cortex Function peer-reviewed View
MDPI peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Based on 10 sources:
ScienceDirect peer-reviewed View
PMC/NCBI peer-reviewed View
MDPI peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Waisman Center institutional View
Brummelman et al., Psychological Science, 2014 peer-reviewed
PubMed peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
What research hasn't answered 4 gaps
PMC (PubMed Central) peer-reviewed View
Oxford Learning institutional View
Stanford News institutional View
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Dweck's 'Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance' (1998) peer-reviewed
Child Development journal - Mueller & Dweck studies on praise and motivation peer-reviewed
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
ScienceDirect peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
Harvard Study of Adult Development institutional View
PMC peer-reviewed View
ScienceDirect peer-reviewed View
PMC/NCBI peer-reviewed View
MDPI peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Sources 22 findings
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
tree-leaf argumentation
Dweck argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
Harvard argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
Dweck argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
Harvard argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
tree-leaf argumentation
Dweck Unknown
argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
Harvard Unknown
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Generated by reaso.ai's editorial pipeline: claim restated, scientific consensus classified via 3-run majority vote, 22 findings enriched with attribution and study type, narrative written in neutral voice. No individual researcher has signed off on this specific analysis — see methodology for how the pipeline works. Built with Claude Sonnet by Anthropic. Updated April 18, 2026. How we do this →

Written by AI. Sources are linked for verification.