Jonah Berger

Losing is bad.

Being a loser is even worse, right?

Cheating on a test is bad, but being a cheater is even worse.

And so research shows that one way to get students to cheat less is just by telling them, well, you know, cheating would make them a cheater.

Yeah, well, taking a step back, I think there's a difference between traits and states.

And what do I mean by that?

Well, a trait is something that's who you are.

It's a fixed thing.

A state is something that happened, right?

A state is something that occurred.

And so when we tell kids they're smart, that sounds like a trait.

That sounds like who they are.

And while that's good in some ways, it's good to be smart, it suggests you don't have to work very hard, right?

Because it's who you are.

And so you didn't get here because of working hard.

You got here because you're just a smart person and you're always going to be a smart person.

And so that's just great for you.

The challenge there is when we say something like that, it can often undermine people's future efforts, right?

They think, okay, I don't need to work hard.

I've already got it.