Do my peers have a fixed or growth mindset? Exploring the behaviors associated with undergraduate STEM students’ perceptions of their peers’ mindsets about intelligence

Abstract

Recent work has found that undergraduate students’ perceptions of their peers’ intelligence mindsets can either promote or hinder their sense of belonging, motivation, and challenge-seeking behaviors in their courses. In the present exploratory set of studies, we examine what specific behaviors signal to students that their peers have either growth or fixed mindsets. Using open-ended (Study 1) and closed-ended (Studies 2–3) measures, we identify five categories of behavior that signal peers’ mindsets to students: verbal or explicit messages, how much effort their peers exert, their peers’ willingness to help, how competitive their peers are, and the extent to which their peers are self-deprecating. In Study 3, we also find that students’ perceptions of their peers’ growth mindsets in a specific STEM course are associated with higher belonging, and lower emotional cost, self-handicapping, and procrastination in that course, replicating and extending previous work. Implications for college STEM instructors are discussed.