A great study from Scientific American.

My conclusions:

• Never talk about intelligence as a born-in trait, but rather as something that grew with the child.
• Tell a child when they do well that they did so because they worked hard, not because they are smart/talented/brilliant.

Interesting quote:

“Those congratulated for their intelligence, for example, shied away from a challenging assignment—they wanted an easy one instead—far more often than the kids applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard problems anyway, those praised for being smart became discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores, even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward, declined as compared with their previous results on equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for their effort did not lose confidence when faced with the harder questions, and their performance improved markedly on the easier problems that followed.”