Book
Dweck CS. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House; 2006. 320 p.
Why we cite it
Popularized the entity vs. incremental theory of intelligence (from Dweck & Leggett 1988) as "fixed mindset" vs. "growth mindset," making decades of academic research accessible to a general audience. The framework provides a lens for understanding why people with similar ability levels achieve differently: those who believe abilities are developable (growth mindset) embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, and view effort as productive, while those who believe abilities are fixed avoid challenges, give up easily, and see effort as evidence of low ability. Applied across education, sports, business, and relationships. Updated edition (2016) added the concept of "false growth mindset" and organizational culture applications.
**Replication concerns:** Meta-analyses have found weaker effects than the book implies. Sisk et al. (2018) found a weak mindset-achievement correlation (r = 0.10) and very small intervention effects (d = 0.08). Macnamara & Burgoyne (2023) found intervention effects nonsignificant after correcting for publication bias, and noted studies with financial ties to mindset organizations reported larger effects. Li & Bates (2019) failed to replicate the Mueller & Dweck (1998) praise study. Dweck and Yeager argue effects are context-dependent, citing their 2019 Nature study showing d = 0.11 for lower-achieving students. The framework remains widely used as a conceptual lens, but the empirical case for intervention efficacy is contested.
About the author
Carol S. Dweck, PhD (b. 1946) — Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University (since 2004). PhD from Yale (1972), previously at Columbia, Harvard, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2012). Received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (2011) and the Yidan Prize for Education Research (2017, ~$3.9M). Her work on implicit theories of intelligence has ~210,000 Google Scholar citations across her career, making her one of the most-cited psychologists alive. The foundational academic paper (Dweck & Leggett 1988) has ~9,475 Semantic Scholar citations; *Mindset* itself has ~5,914.
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