Parents Should Not Give Their Child This Kind of Compliment, Study Says

As a parent, we inevitably think – rightly or wrongly – that our child is intelligent. Thinking about it is one thing, constantly telling him about it is another. And this is precisely the error that Chinese and Canadian scientists point out, according to the conclusions of their study.

Avoid praising your child

In this study, researchers from the Hangzhou Institute of Psychological Sciences in China and the Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto, Canada, studied a cohort of 300 children: a group of 150 children aged three years and a second group of five years. Each time, the researchers asked them riddles and promised them a reward if they answered half of the questions correctly.

Subsequently, children were valued differently:

• one group was complimented with the following phrase: “you are really intelligent”;
• another group was complimented with the words: “you did a good job”;
• the third group did not receive any words of encouragement.

Children more likely to cheat

In the second round, the researchers rigged the riddles so that the children had more wrong answers. By leaving them alone to answer the questions, after having recommended them not to cheat, the participants were filmed without their knowledge.

Results: 60% of children who received compliments on their intelligence cheated to succeed. In the second group complimented on their work, 40% of the children were pushed to cheat. Scientists also noticed that boys were more likely to cheat than girls. Moral: it is better to encourage your child’s efforts to complete work rather than praising his or her intelligence.

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