Sarunas comments on Open thread, Dec. 15 - Dec. 21, 2014 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: Gondolinian 15 December 2014 12:01AM

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Comment author: Sarunas 18 December 2014 12:59:16AM *  6 points [-]

I am not familiar with that organization. However, psychologist Carol Dweck, the author of the book "Mindset", claims that it is better to praise children for their hard work instead of their innate intelligence, because this way one encourages them to develop "growth" mindset instead of "fixed" mindset, since the latter is less useful. On a similar note, I guess that organizations that are based on the "fixed" mindset are probably less useful than organizations or clubs that are based on some goal that could help you to develop "growth" mindset. Therefore it is probably better to join an organization that is working to achieve something and it is the result of your efforts that is measured, instead of unchanging abilities. Of course, being unfamiliar with International High IQ Society, I might be wrong about them. Perhaps instead of trying to find an organization that would help your personal growth you are simply trying to find a new place to meet new people and/or network. In that case I have very little idea whether this organization is useful for that goal, therefore I will not say anything about that.

Comment author: Lumifer 18 December 2014 02:46:59AM 2 points [-]

it is better to praise children for their hard work instead of their innate intelligence

That dichotomy looks funny to me. What about praising for results?

Comment author: Sarunas 18 December 2014 11:59:42PM *  0 points [-]

Carol Dweck's assistants praised the children after they did well on a test.

Dweck sent four female research assistants into New York fifth-grade classrooms. The researchers would take a single child out of the classroom for a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of puzzles—puzzles easy enough that all the children would do fairly well. Once the child finished the test, the researchers told each student his score, then gave him a single line of praise. Randomly divided into groups, some were praised for their intelligence. They were told, “You must be smart at this.” Other students were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard.”

So, it was not efforts or intelligence per se they were praised for. They were praised for having a reason to be good in that series of puzzles (of course, in this particular case, children were told what the "reason" was). Of course, it would probably be interesting to test whether praising children for results and results only, without any allusions to what might have been a reason for their success (leaving that to children themselves to deduce), is good or not.

Comment author: Lumifer 19 December 2014 03:43:28PM 0 points [-]

Interesting. I am a bit suspicious of the results as my priors keep telling me that the effect looks too large for a single sentence (kids aren't THAT easy to influence), but yes, I see what you mean.

Comment author: Gondolinian 29 December 2014 10:45:35PM 0 points [-]

Relevant TED talk.

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