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When “you are smart” backfires: Adult ability attributions of young children’s success increase test cheating.

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Academic honesty is a crucial component of schooling that begins in kindergarten.However, existing research has predominantly focused on older students' academic dishonesty, creating a critical knowledge gap in understanding how academic honesty develops during early childhood.In a series of three studies (N 5 378; two preregistered), we experimentally investigated whether adult attributional feedback following 5-6-year-olds' test performance influenced their subsequent decisions to engage in honesty or cheating behavior.Study 1 (N 5 126) examined failure attributions: Children who failed a pretest received feedback from adults attributing their failure to insufficient effort, bad luck, or task difficulty.Study 2 (N 5 168) examined success attributions: Children who succeeded received feedback attributing their success to ability (being smart), effort, good luck, or task ease.Study 3 (N 5 84) established baseline cheating rates without attributional feedback following failure (Study 3a) or success (Study 3b).All children then completed a challenging test with equal opportunity to cheat.Attributing success to ability significantly increased cheating (64.3%) compared with attributing it to effort (35.7%), luck (38.1%), task ease (21.4%), and control (35.7%).Different failure attributions showed no significant effects on cheating.These findings support the Attribution-to-Morality Hypothesis, demonstrating that adult attributional feedback shapes not only children's achievement motivation but also their moral behavior in academic contexts.The asymmetrical effects of success versus failure attributions suggest that young children are particularly vulnerable to ability-focused feedback following achievements and that adults' causal explanations emphasizing fixed ability can undermine academic honesty in early childhood. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis research demonstrates that attributing young children's success to their intelligence (e.g., "You succeeded because you are smart") significantly increases their likelihood of cheating on subsequent tests, nearly doubling dishonesty rates compared with attributions to effort, luck, or task ease.These findings challenge conventional educational practices where adults routinely interpret children's achievements in terms of fixed abilities.This finding reveals an uncomfortable truth: In our eagerness to build confident, capable learners, we may inadvertently undermine the very character strengths that enable genuine achievement.More broadly, the finding suggests that how adults explain the causes of children's academic outcomes carries not only significant motivational implications but also profound moral consequences.Educators and parents need to carefully consider the attributional messages they convey when responding to children's achievements, ensuring their feedback supports both academic growth and moral development.
DOI: 10.1037/edu0001062
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7203822756
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