Effort-focused praise between friends: Effects on mindset and motivation of giver and receiver

• Kyosuke Kakinuma

  Faculty of Psychology, Doshisha University and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo

• Fumika Nishiguti

  Doshisha University

• Kotoe Sonoda

  Doshisha University

• Haruhi Tajiri

  Doshisha University

• Ayumi Tanaka

  Doshisha University

We examined the effects of effort-focused versus ability-focused praise between friends on individual mindset and motivation, and investigated the effects on the person receiving praise as well as on the praiser. We conducted a scenario-based experiment focusing on an everyday situation based on cooking. The participants were 271 undergraduates who were randomly assigned to six groups, comprising a 2 (receiving or offering praise) × 3 (effort-focused praise, ability-focused praise, or no praise) design. The results show that both receiving and offering effort-focused praise positively and significantly affected a growth mindset and also had an indirect positive effect on persistence following failure; however, ability-focused praise affected neither mindset nor persistence. Our findings suggest that in daily friendship-based interactions, praise focused on effort over ability encourages adaptive outcomes for both the praised individual and the person offering the praise; therefore, students need to not only praise each other but also pay attention to the type of praise offered.

1. Fumika Nishiguti, Doshisha University
   Faculty of Psychology
2. Kotoe Sonoda, Doshisha University
   Faculty of Psychology
3. Haruhi Tajiri, Doshisha University
   Faculty of Psychology
4. Ayumi Tanaka, Doshisha University
   Faculty of Psychology

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