Promoting a Growth Mindset Decreases Behavioral Self-Handicapping Among Students Who Are on the Fixed Side of the Mindset Continuum

We examined the interplay between chronic and manipulated intelligence beliefs and self-handicapping. Participants with more of an initial fixed mindset benefited a lot from a brief growth mindset manipulation and displayed the lowest levels of self-handicapping. The mindset manipulation had less effect on self-handicapping of prior growth-mindset individuals.