Research Hit: A Positive Attitude Boosts Passion and Grit
New research shows that indeed, a growth, positive, mindset, does boost passion and grit, at least a bit.
So those Debby downers are real downers!
Yes, this shows those negative people seem to have less passion, no surprise, but also less grit - ability to determinedly fight on and be resilient.
Is this a surprise?
Yes, and no. It may seem obvious that those with more positive attitudes may be more passionate because of their positive energy. However, resilience may be affected because when things do not go well, for example, and they may be more disappointed. There is also something known as depressive realists who are those depressive people who have a much more realistic outlook on life and are better at predicting the future. Precisely because they are not so optimistic.
You may also have heard of the concept of “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset”. A growth mindset is associated with those who think in terms of grow and are more optimistic and willing to invest in learning. This took the world by storm (educational world particularly) when Caroline Dweck published her book “Mindset” in 2006. The initial research in school children seemed to show positive effects but the research over the years has been less than convincing. These researchers investigated this growth mindset.
So what did these researchers do then?
Hermundur Sigmundsson and Monika Haga of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway took a sample of 1548 participants and measured their growth mindsets and also their levels of grit with a standardised assessment.
They then took those that measured in the 5% highest in growth mindset and compared these to those that measured in the 5% lowest. And they saw a statistically significant difference between levels of passion and grit.
So that’s good news - be positive and have a growth mindset!
Yes, it’s good news. The caveat is that these measured the highest against the lowest and the absolute difference even amongst those is pretty small. The difference being about 0.36 on a scale of 1-5.
So it helps a bit, only?!
Yes, it helps a bit but there are likely other positive knock on effects such as better relationships, and lower stress. So still not to be sniffed at.
And I’d rather work with someone, or have a friend, who is more positive than negative!
Absolutely, me too!
Reference
Hermundur Sigmundsson and Monika Haga
Passion and grit in individuals with high levels of growth mindset are different than in individuals who have low growth mindset
Acta Psychologica, Volume 250, 2024, 104480
ISSN 0001-6918,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104480