Think back to when you were in a classroom, maybe a maths classroom and the teacher set a difficult problem. Which of the two following responses is closer to the way you reacted?

A: Oh no, this is too hard for me. I’m not even going to seriously try and work it out.

B: Ah, this is quite hard but I like to push myself. Even if I don’t get the answer right, maybe I’ll learn something in the attempt (尝试).

Early in her career, the psychologist Carol Dweck of Stanford University gave a group of ten-year-olds problems that were slightly too hard for them. One group reacted positively said they loved challenge and understood that their abilities could be developed. She said they had a “growth mindset” and focused on what they could achieve in the future. But another group of children felt that their intelligence was being judged and they had failed. They had a “fixed mindset” and were unable to imagine improving. These students even looked for someone who had done worse than them to boost (提升) their self-esteem (自尊). Professor Dweck believes that there is a problem in education at the moment. For years, children have been praised for their intelligence or talent, but thus makes them vulnerable (脆弱的) to failure. They want to please by getting high grades, but they are not necessarily interested in learning for its own sake (目的). The solution, according to Dweck, is to praise the process that children are engaged (忙于) in making an effort, using learning strategies, persevering (坚持) and improving. This way they will become mastery-oriented (interested in getting better at something) and will achieve more. She thinks that keeping working hard over time is the key to outstanding achievement.

Psychologists have been testing these theories. Students were taught that if they left their comfort zone and learned something new and difficult, the neurons (神经元) in their brains would form stronger connections, making them more intelligent. These students made faster progress than a control group. In another study, some under-performing school children were exposed (接触) to growth mindset skills for a year. The results were surprising. They came top in tests, beating children from much more better schools. These children had previously (以前) felt that making an effort was a sign of stupidity, but they came to see it as the key to learning.

So, back to our original question. If you answered B, well done —you already have a growth mindset. If A, don’t worry, everyone can become mastery-oriented with a little effort and self-awareness.

Unable to find out anything else to watch on TV, you decided to watch a boxing match that is just beginning on the sports channel. Before the first round ends, the boxer in the dark trunks is suddenly on the canvas(拳击台上的帆布), seemingly caught by an unexpected blow from his opponent. He gets up, looking fine, however, and the bout(较量) continues. Again in the third round, the same boxer is knocked down, but he is up again by the count of 7, and finishes the round. The fight eventually goes until after 10 rounds, and boxers stand together with the referee while the decision is made. The boxer in the dark trunks wins!

You’re confused — even a little upset. How could he be declared the winner? He was knocked down to the canvas twice and his opponent was not even once during the entire fight! You were sure the man in the white trunks had won.

What happened? Did the judges make a wrong decision? Did you make a bad judgment? Actually, neither you nor the judges made a poor judgment. What happened is that you were judging by different criteria. The criterion(pl. criteria) is the basis on which a judgment is made. As an untrained observer, you believed that knockdowns were a key criterion in deciding the outcome of the boxing match. The judges, however, following the rules of boxing, made their decision based on the number of punches(出拳) landed during the fight. Therefore, they also considered the strategy and the defense of the boxers in making their decision. So you have two different judgments — each of which could be supported — depending on the criterion used to make the judgment.

It often happened that people make judgments without really thinking about the criterion upon which they are judging. This is often the source of differences between parents and children. For example, when a teenager wants to buy her or his own car, the parents’ criteria for selection might include economy(节约) and safety, whereas looks, style and horsepower might be more important criteria from the teen’s point of view. It is precisely the lack of recognition(公共认同) of criteria that the advertiser plays on(利用) to persuade us to buy a product, suggesting, for example, that the best criterion for buying something is whether it makes us “look young” or whether “our friends have one.”

Criteria for judgments generally come from our past experiences: Sometimes we judge on the basis of firsthand experiences we have had with a given object or situation. However, many of the judgments we make are based on the unique set of beliefs, biases(偏见), and habits we have come to acquire(获得、形成) throughout our lifetimes.