A 'fixed mindset' is only psychologically damaging if you have low self-esteem; for those with high self-confidence, it actually increases feelings of pride.
While popular psychology suggests that believing your talents are 'fixed' is always harmful, this study found a 'Janus face' effect. If you have a high self-concept, a fixed mindset actually correlates with higher pride and lower negative emotions, challenging the universal push for 'growth mindsets' in all contexts.
The Janus Face of Fixed Mindset: Revisiting the Neglected Self-Concept × Mindset Interaction in Achievement Emotions
PsyArXiv · ut3gn_v3
Many influential psychological theories are formulated in explicitly conditional terms: the impact of one construct depends on another. Yet when interactions appear weak or inconsistent empirically, often as a function of analytic constraints, the absence of evidence may be mistaken for evidence of absence. This encourages a drift from interactional theory to additive conceptions. Mindset theory provides a revealing case. Dweck’s original formulation did not portray fixed-ability beliefs as unif