Carol Dweck

A Stanford psychologist whose research separates two beliefs people hold about ability: that it is fixed and reveals what you are, or that it grows with effort and reveals only where you are now.

Mindset made that distinction famous and, predictably, flattened it. Dweck has spent years since correcting the version that reached schools, where praising effort became a ritual disconnected from strategy or outcome. She calls that a false growth mindset. Later replication work has trimmed the effect sizes considerably, which she has engaged with rather than dismissed.