Student Mindsets Matter: Experimental Evidence from a Growth Mindset Intervention in Brazil

Student Mindsets Matter: Experimental Evidence from a Growth Mindset Intervention in Brazil | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Social Sciences - Article Student Mindsets Matter: Experimental Evidence from a Growth Mindset Intervention in Brazil Guilherme Lichand, Eric Bettinger, Ana Ribeiro, Carlos Alberto Doria, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6683253/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study examines the impact of an SMS-based growth mindset training on secondary students in São Paulo State, Brazil, in the aftermath of the pandemic. We implemented a cluster-randomized design involving 108,345 students across 624 schools. We assigned students to one of five treatment groups, each emphasizing different potential mechanisms associated with the growth mindset literature, or a control group. Pooling the different SMS content variations, the intervention led to a 10% increase in the prevalence of growth mindset among treated students compared to the control group. The treatment also decreased student absenteeism by half as in-person classes resumed. These effects are twice as large as those observed in a placebo treatment group, whereby students received messages without growth mindset content. Different from previous findings in the literature, we estimate significant and sizeable average treatment effects on standardized test scores: the intervention increased the control average learning rate over that period by up to 68%. Among the five different content variations, messages emphasizing dynamic complementarities of school effort outperformed other treatments, such as those emphasizing returns to effort or risk-taking, in promoting growth mindsets and enhancing learning outcomes. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Education Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Economics Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. Lichand is a co-founder and partner at Movva, the Brazilian EdTech that curated and implemented the SMS interventions evaluated in this study. This study was generously funded by the J-PAL Post-Primary Education Initiative and the Stanford Lemann Center for Educational Innovation and Educational Entrepreneurship in Brazil. No other authors have competing interests to disclose. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformationAppendix.pdf Supplementary Information Appendix Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6683253","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Social Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":463802837,"identity":"7677d704-9f79-41ad-b18c-acea3936efe6","order_by":0,"name":"Guilherme Lichand","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdsYGZiDF2A/m2QDxAQYGCbxamKFaZoKpNKK0gBED44YDxGqRd2Zu/FxQc0d28/nzBz8XJNjk8x1gPnibB48Ww8OMzdIzjj0z3nYjmVl6RkKa5cwDbMnWeLU0M7Yx87AdTtx2g5lBmvfHYQODAzxm0oS1/DucuLn/MPNvngSQFv5veLXIMwO18LYdTtzAkMwmDdHCw4ZXiwEz0C+8fYeNZ9xINrPmSUgzkDzMZmw5B58t7e0PP/N8Oyzb33/w8W2eBBsDvuPND2+8wWfLAQwhZjzKwbY0EFAwCkbBKBgFo4ABAOmFSy72hpDoAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9118-1745","institution":"Stanford Graduate School of Education","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guilherme","middleName":"","lastName":"Lichand","suffix":""},{"id":463802838,"identity":"d7b396f2-20d9-4108-ad2f-93b3006da5de","order_by":1,"name":"Eric Bettinger","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Stanford Graduate School of Education","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eric","middleName":"","lastName":"Bettinger","suffix":""},{"id":463802839,"identity":"5c010dd9-62fc-4dc0-b1ff-56512f4cbafa","order_by":2,"name":"Ana Ribeiro","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2208-0569","institution":"Stanford University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ana","middleName":"","lastName":"Ribeiro","suffix":""},{"id":463802840,"identity":"5d7036d3-9ae0-45b8-9532-43126ebb0a71","order_by":3,"name":"Carlos Alberto Doria","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Stanford University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carlos","middleName":"Alberto","lastName":"Doria","suffix":""},{"id":463802841,"identity":"cf9c9498-d1e5-4cc7-9d4e-830fcce13b4f","order_by":4,"name":"Mari Rege","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Stavanger University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mari","middleName":"","lastName":"Rege","suffix":""},{"id":463802842,"identity":"33738819-e017-4bd2-b60d-266b15b7d447","order_by":5,"name":"David Yeager","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8522-9503","institution":"University of Texas at Austin","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"","lastName":"Yeager","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-16 20:05:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6683253/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6683253/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85408468,"identity":"165a10aa-998a-4327-80a6-a7b9540a12e2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 13:34:35","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":912426,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6683253/v1_covered_fc21494c-582c-47c9-887f-3e381f0a395b.pdf"},{"id":83748009,"identity":"e5325db0-25b7-4138-ade0-eb9dc8d30c34","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-02 05:32:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1110428,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Information Appendix","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryInformationAppendix.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6683253/v1/06fcb3b81509dcfc521e9624.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cb\u003eYes\u003c/b\u003e there is potential Competing Interest.\nLichand is a co-founder and partner at Movva, the Brazilian EdTech that curated and implemented the SMS interventions evaluated in this study. This study was generously funded by the J-PAL Post-Primary Education Initiative and the Stanford Lemann Center for Educational Innovation and Educational Entrepreneurship in Brazil. No other authors have competing interests to disclose.","formattedTitle":"Student Mindsets Matter: Experimental Evidence from a Growth Mindset Intervention in Brazil","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6683253/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6683253/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"This study examines the impact of an SMS-based growth mindset training on secondary students in São Paulo State, Brazil, in the aftermath of the pandemic. We implemented a cluster-randomized design involving 108,345 students across 624 schools. We assigned students to one of five treatment groups, each emphasizing different potential mechanisms associated with the growth mindset literature,\r\nor a control group. Pooling the different SMS content variations, the intervention led to a 10% increase in the prevalence of growth mindset among treated students compared to the control group. The treatment also decreased student absenteeism by half as in-person classes resumed. These effects are twice as large as those observed in a placebo treatment group, whereby students received messages without growth mindset content. Different from previous findings in the literature, we estimate significant and sizeable average treatment effects on standardized test scores: the\r\nintervention increased the control average learning rate over that period by up to 68%. 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