Why 'you're smart' can backfire: Young children may cheat more after ability praise

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Parents and teachers might think telling kids "they're smart" is a helpful way to build self-confidence and support positive development. But according to new research, these kinds of statements might shape how kids approach academic tasks in ways we did not intend or expect. In some cases, they might even encourage a child to cheat. What adults say matters When children experience success or failure, parents and teachers often provide feedback about why the success or failure occurred. This can help kids make sense of the world, feel good about themselves or know how to improve next time. Researchers refer to these explanations as "attributions." According to longstanding research, the explanations we give for success or failure typically focus on one of four attributions: ability ("you are so smart") effort ("you tried so hard") luck ("you must have guessed correctly") task difficulty ("it was an easy test") Whether they are accurate or not, research tells us these attributions can have a significant impact. They can shape how kids feel about the outcome of a test or task and how they might respond to challenges in the future. This is particularly true when the attributions come from people kids trust. How adult feedback might promote cheating In new research conducted in China and published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, researchers considered how children ages 5–6 would respond when given different attributions about their performance. Specifically, they wanted to see whether different explanations would influence whether children cheated on future tests. Across two experiments, 210 children from urban middle-class backgrounds were given a test designed so they would experience success (an easy counting task). After the test, children in one experiment were told by the experimenter, in varying ways, that they had succeeded because they were smart, worked hard, got lucky or the task was easy. Children in the second experiment were given no explanation for their success. After receiving feedback, all children were then given a temptation task. They were asked to complete a short test and try to get as many answers right as possible. The task was designed with an opportunity for them to cheat when the adult left the room. Interestingly, children who were told they were smart immediately before the temptation task were almost twice as likely to cheat (64.3%) as children who were told they were lucky (38.1%), had worked hard (35.7%), had easy questions (21.4%) or received no explanation at all (35.7%). This suggests the "smart" group felt pressure to succeed that the other groups did not. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matter—daily or weekly. Why do little kids cheat? Cheating behavior among young children is often attributed to poor impulse control or self-regulation. In research involving different kinds of temptation tasks, more than 90% of children ages 3–5 have been shown to cheat. For example, in one classic task, young children are told there is a toy in a box. They are then asked not to peek while the adult leaves the room. Yet there is also evidence that elementary school-age children make strategic decisions about cheating. For example, children might weigh the benefits of cheating against the risk. They also increasingly make moral judgments about when it is OK to cheat and when it is not. The most recent findings encourage us to consider how feedback from adults might contribute to this behavior. Praise is not always helpful To better understand how adults saying things like "you're smart" might increase the risk of cheating, we can consider research on the effects of praise on children's motivation and behavior. Attributing success to a child's natural ability is a type of praise. Adults are not just acknowledging the child's performance but also making a general statement about their intelligence. While praising intelligence might immediately boost children's confidence, it can also mean children feel pressure to continue doing well. Children may be motivated to preserve this image and avoid shame. If a task feels too difficult, children may be motivated to turn away from the task completely. This might mean quitting or, if the task is required, putting in less effort. What can parents and teachers do? This new research has some important implications for parents and teachers. Praising young children for being smart can feel supportive, but research suggests there may also be unintended consequences—especially if it serves to increase pressure on a child. To boost children's confidence, we can instead talk to kids about what is important and why. An alternative option is to focus on children's effort (for example, "you worked really hard on that, great job!"). This is helpful because effort is controllable, and we know practice is important for developing expertise. Admittedly, research tells us effort praise is only sometimes effective at enhancing learning outcomes. Yet we also know it is easy to implement with no known downsides. Research also tells us that directly encouraging young children to be honest ("I want you to promise you're not going to peek") and praising them for being good ("I know kids in your class and they told me you're a good kid") have both been shown to reduce cheating behavior. This is because children are still in the process of working out whether cheating is advantageous. While winning feels good, so does praise for doing the right thing. Publication details Li Zhao et al, When "you are smart" backfires: Adult ability attributions of young children's success increase test cheating., Journal of Educational Psychology (2026). DOI: 10.1037/edu0001062 Journal information: Journal of Educational Psychology Who's behind this story? Swati Mestri Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile → Robert Egan Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile → This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.