Some fascinating research shows, however, that if you can convince people that smarts come from what people do, rather than what they were born with, performance improves markedly. In a study with Stanford undergraduates, randomly selected students were persuaded to believe that intelligence was malleable rather than fixed. Over two months later, they reported being more engaged in and enjoying the academic process more than students in control conditions. More impressively, students persuaded to believe that smartness was malleable got better grades the next term, especially African-American students. (<em>they footnote the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 22 (2001):1-13, available at http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~jsteele/files/04082317412924405.pdf</em>)