Drops of AmusementToo Much Praise
According to research from a group of Columbia scholars, over-praising kids leads to a tendency toward selfishness, hyper-competitiveness, and the desire to tear down others' success.
Here are some of their findings:
- A study in which test students were given a choice between learning
their performance ranking relative to other kids on the first of two
puzzles or using that same time to be taught a new strategy for
solving the second puzzle, those who were praised on their
intelligence (their "smarts" instead of their "effort") chose to find
out their rank rather than better prepare for the next challenge.
- In a second study of similar students (two groups, one praised for brains, the other for perseverance), the kids were asked to fill out progress reports on themselves they were told would be mailed to students at other schools - kids the test subjects would never know or meet. Fully 40% of the "smart" praise-group inflated their scores, yet few in the "effort" group lied.
This means children who are conditioned by their parents and
well-meaning teachers into believing they're gifted (even if they really are) are
more concerned with maintaining their own self-images and demoralizing
possible rivals than they are with actually achieving anything or
improving themselves.
Some research also shows that these kids may be more likely than others to
CHEAT. What's really ironic is that after
a certain point, praising kids is very likely to backfire.