The study also found almost no relationship between gender and intelligence “mindset,”<\/strong> which refers to a person’s beliefs about his or her own intellectual potential.<\/p>\n According to mindset theory — developed by Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University — some people have “growth” mindsets while others have “fixed” mindsets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A growth mindset<\/strong>, considered a positive trait, is more likely to lead a person to try to overcome challenges<\/strong>, believing intelligence can improve with effort.<\/p>\n Fixed mindsets<\/strong>, often seen as a negative, are more likely to lead people to avoid difficult tasks<\/strong> and assume failure is due to intelligence levels that cannot be changed.<\/p>\n Because girls are thought to mature earlier than boys, according to mindset theory, they are often praised for their attributes — how they “are.” More of this type of praise is given to “bright” girls, which leads them to believe their cognitive abilities are more or less set in stone.<\/p>\n Published in the journal\u00a0Intelligence<\/em>, the new research found little indication such a phenomenon exists in adult women.<\/p>\n “Overall, we saw no reliable evidence for a relationship between women’s intelligence and their mindsets,” said Brooke Macnamara, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Case Western Reserve and co-author of the study. “Our results do not support the idea that men and women differ in their beliefs about intelligence.”<\/p>\n The findings run contrary to some cornerstones of the mindset field: that females, especially smarter females, tend to believe their intelligence levels are static, and that differences in childhood praise given to boys and girls can heavily influence a person’s later beliefs about their own intelligence.<\/p>\n The study<\/strong><\/p>\n In three studies, nearly 400 total participants were given an intelligence test and a measure developed by Dweck that discerns a person’s attitudes toward the plasticity of their own intelligence and talent.<\/p>\n They were asked, for example, how much they agreed with such statements as,\u00a0You can always substantially change how intelligent you are<\/em>, and\u00a0No matter who you are, you can significantly change your level of intelligence<\/em>.<\/p>\n The studies are among the first to investigate three factors among adults: measured intelligence, intelligence mindset, and gender.<\/p>\n Evidence for the bright girl effect is mostly based on three academic studies conducted with children and adolescents from the 1980’s.<\/p>\n “These studies help fill in gaps in the mindset research,” said Macnamara. “Some past research has suggested a ‘bright girl effect’ — gender differences among children. However, a ‘bright woman effect’ — gender differences among adults — seemed to be an untested assumption. Across our studies, there were no consistent relationships among intelligence, mindset and gender. Our research did not support the idea of a ‘bright woman effect.'”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the\u00a0Case Western Reserve University press release: The notion that young females limit their own progress based on what they believe about their intelligence — called the “bright girl effect”… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[526],"tags":[20,46,146,12,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23353,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23028\/revisions\/23353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/STEM-lab-woman-300x188.jpg\")
The notion that young females limit their own progress based on what they believe about their intelligence — called the “bright girl effect” — does not persist into adulthood<\/strong>, according to new research from Case Western Reserve University.<\/p>\n