一项研究提出，认为智力是可塑的学生可能免于贫穷对学习成绩的某些负面效应的影响。此前的研究已经证明了贫穷的儿童比富裕的儿童在学校的成绩更差，而认为智力是固定的学生比认为智力可以通过学习而发展的学生在学校的成绩更差，这种现象被称为“成长心态”。
Susana Claro及其同事检验了一个成长心态是否能够改变贫穷的效应。这组作者研究了来自智利公立学校10年级的2010年的数据，把学生关于他们的智力心态的回答与数学和语言的标准化测试成绩联系在了一起。这些数据代表了超过16.8万名学生的数学和语言成绩。正如预料的，这组数据表明了在家庭收入和学习成绩之间的一个联系。此外，贫穷的学生比富裕的学生拥有一个成长心态的可能性更低。然而，确实拥有成长心态的贫穷学生比那些认为智力是固定的学生在这些考试中的成绩远远更好。
这组作者说，贫穷可能通过破坏学生关于智力可塑的信念从而部分地影响学习成绩。
Susana Claro , David Paunesku & Carol S. Dweck..Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1608207113
Abstract
Two largely separate bodies of empirical research have shown that academic achievement is influenced by structural factors, such as socioeconomic background, and psychological factors, such as students' beliefs about their abilities. In this research, we use a nationwide sample of high school students from Chile to investigate how these factors interact on a systemic level. Confirming prior research, we find that family income is a strong predictor of achievement. Extending prior research, we find that a growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed) is a comparably strong predictor of achievement and that it exhibits a positive relationship with achievement across all of the socioeconomic strata in the country. Furthermore, we find that students from lower-income families were less likely to hold a growth mindset than their wealthier peers, but those who did hold a growth mindset were appreciably buffered against the deleterious effects of poverty on achievement: students in the lowest 10th percentile of family income who exhibited a growth mindset showed academic performance as high as that of fixed mindset students from the 80th income percentile. These results suggest that students' mindsets may temper or exacerbate the effects of economic disadvantage on a systemic level.
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