The Effects of Praise on a "Praiser"

• In Event: 16.061 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.061-5 - Extending Mindset Research: Implicit Beliefs of Teachers and Students in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Previous research shows that ability (e.g., “You are smart”) and effort (e.g., “You worked hard) praise encourage the adoption of entity and incremental theory, respectively. These two types of praise negatively and positively affect motivation following failure, respectively. However, is it possible praise affects the one doing the praising in the same way? In the current study, we examined the effects of praise on praisers’ intrinsic motivation. Participants were asked to provide ability, effort, or no praise in response to their confederates’ task performance. The results showed that participants’ motivation decreased in the ability praise condition. However, praise did not seem to affect theories of intelligence. Our research indicates that ability praise negatively affects people who praise others.

Authors

• Kyosuke Kakinuma, Doshisha University

• Ayumi Tanaka, Doshisha University