Desert Highway

Sustaining the Journey

Fixed versus Growth Mindsets and the Brain

Authored By:

Thinking Collaborative


December 05, 2015

In a study at Michigan State University, researchers examined the neural activity when a mistake is made. Those with a growth mindset see mistakes as opportunities to learn. Those who have a fixed mindset attribute mistakes to a lack of luck or ability.

In observing brain activity in each case, Jason Moser and his colleagues discovered greater neural activity after an error in those with growth mindsets. They suggest a processing of the mistake is occurring and new neural connections are forming in order to learn from the mistake.

Why might this be important in your work? How are you consciously developing a growth mindset in your students and staff?

Source: Gino, F and Staats, B. (2015). Why Organizations Don’t Learn. Harvard Business Review. 93(11). 110-118.