“Work hard, and you’ll be successful.”
How often do we tell children that the key to success is putting forth effort? That advice might seem like admirable inspiration to encourage kids to work hard as they pursue their goals. However, new research in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests that those messages may have an unintended consequence, making people believe that someone who isn’t succeeding isn’t bothering to try. And those perceptions can perpetuate inequality in society.
"How do all of these lessons about working hard potentially carry over to our beliefs about other people?"
“How do all of these lessons about working hard potentially carry over to our beliefs about other people?” asks Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, who co-authored the study. “If you are learning that effort is the way to achieve success, and you see people who have less, you might assume they didn’t work hard enough—as opposed to recognizing the systems and institutions we know can stand in the way.”
Whillans explored these questions in a trio of studies of parents and children along with Antonya Gonzalez, assistant psychology professor at Western Washington University; and Lucia Macchia, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy.
The research is particularly relevant, they say, given that many early educators today are focusing on willpower, grit, and a “growth mindset,” teaching kids that intelligence can be grown like a muscle, and that it’s not inherited or predetermined.
“There is such an emphasis now with kids on effort and taking control of your own learning and abilities,” says Gonzalez. “But it’s not possible for everyone to overcome certain challenges.”
The belief that effort is the key to success could also influence people’s perceptions of workers in various jobs, particularly low-wage positions, the researchers say.
“This overemphasis on effort could lead people to believe that workers in low-wage jobs are not deserving of increased pay or better working conditions,” says Whillans, which is an idea that is consistent with some of her ongoing research with HBS doctoral student Elizabeth Johnson.
Studying luck, ability, or effort—with aliens
To test the effects of these messages, the researchers considered three possible explanations for why one person might be more successful than another. The cause might be situational, based on where a person grew up, the family they were born into, or the educational opportunities they had—in other words, luck. It might be individual, based on factors beyond a person’s control, such as raw intelligence or athletic skill—meaning ability. Or it might be individual but based on controllable factors, such as hard work or persistence—in other words, effort.
The researchers conducted an online survey of 200 Americans, presenting them with a fictional story about a planet with two alien species, Blarks and Orps, who differed in their amount of wealth, educational attainment, job status, or hierarchy. Parents were asked to imagine how they might explain a discrepancy in achievement between the two species to their children—attributing it to luck, ability, or effort. They chose to use these study details based on past research to make the study cleanly about inequality as opposed to pre-existing beliefs about certain groups in society.
More respondents, about 41 percent, chose to explain the species with lower achievement levels as lacking effort, compared to 34 percent saying it was due to luck, and 25 percent mentioning ability.
"People are struggling to make ends meet around the country, and success is often determined in part by uncontrollable factors."
“They explained this disparity by saying the [higher-achieving] group worked harder,” says Whillans, noting that the numbers were consistent across wealth, gender, and political orientation of respondents. “That’s not too surprising in the context of the United States, where we conducted the study, where there are strong beliefs about the importance of hard work.”
In a second study, the researchers asked parents and children in science museums in Boston and Vancouver, Canada, to separately complete a survey about the same story. They found that 60 percent of children attributed the unequal alien status to a lack of effort, compared to 21 percent saying it was luck and 20 percent choosing ability.
Those findings show just how ubiquitous the message of success through effort has become to children, researchers say. Even so, the children whose parents also chose effort as an explanation were even more likely than their peers to focus on effort themselves, showing that what parents tell their offspring really does have an impact on their beliefs.
Will kids even the playing field?
In the final study, the researchers asked kids to play a game in which they were told that one alien had a coin and the other had none. The child was given different explanations for why a certain alien had a coin, again attributing it to luck, ability, or effort, and then was asked to give an additional coin to the alien of their choosing. They could either perpetuate inequality by giving it to the alien who already had one or rectify inequality by giving it to the alien with nothing.
When told that aliens had coins due to effort or ability, about one-third of children rectified the inequality. But when told the discrepancy was due to luck, children rectified the inequality by giving a coin to the have-not alien a whopping 75 percent of the time.
“We saw that explanation really matters,” Gonzalez concludes. “With luck, children were recognizing that maybe the person wasn’t in control of their circumstances, and therefore, they could do something to solve this inequality.”
The studies demonstrate a pattern: Parents are more likely to attribute success to effort, and the children of those parents are more likely to follow suit. Children who believe that inequality is due to lack of effort are less likely to rectify that inequality.
"Our studies show that the way parents explain why some people have more than others in society can fundamentally shift what their kids believe."
These findings may be problematic in a world in which systemic issues make success less likely for people of certain backgrounds, or for those who are born with less wealth or privilege, Whillans says.
“We want our children to believe that they can work hard and get ahead as a function of their effort but, unfortunately, the world doesn’t always work that way,” she says. “People are struggling to make ends meet around the country, and success is often determined in part by uncontrollable factors that are complicated for parents to talk with their kids about.”
What parents can do
It’s important for parents, especially affluent ones, to discuss these issues with their children, the researchers say. “Parents can help their children recognize that the starting line is not the same for everyone, and they might have a head start as compared to others,” Whillans says.
Another suggestion: Parents can make charitable contributions with their children, especially involving an experience kids can relate to. For example, a family could donate to a school lunch program and explain why some children don’t have enough to eat. “Try to make it action-oriented, so the conversation becomes a positive catalyst for being generous in the community,” Whillans says.
It might be even better to get the children actively involved in the giving, she says, for example by donating their toys in-person or donating clothes to programs that help other children in need as opposed to simply helping their parents write a check.
“The families that have the most often also have the most to give, and conversations about why and how to help others are powerful,” Whillans says. “Our studies show that the way parents explain why some people have more than others in society can fundamentally shift what their kids believe, and maybe even what their kids do to rectify inequality over the course of their lives.”
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Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu.
Image: Unsplash/Tina Floersch