Do growth mindsets reduce the big-fish-little-pond effect?

Research on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) indicates that students evaluate themselves more favorably when they have high rank in low rank schools than low rank in high rank schools. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how the detrimental effects of being a little fish in a big pond might be reduced. To address this gap, we conducted two experiments testing whether growth mindsets reduce the BFLPE. Participants in two preregistered studies read an article suggesting that intellectual abilities are malleable or fixed prior to a standard manipulation of the BFLPE (total N = 539). Results yielded a highly robust BFLPE on self-evaluations and affect (ds > 1.02). However, the BFLPE was not substantially altered by growth mindsets in either study. Further, despite using parallel materials and measures, the growth mindset manipulation was somewhat less impactful in the present study than in prior studies. These data provide the first experimental evidence that the BFLPE is robust to growth mindset interventions. Implications for research on the BFLPE and growth mindset interventions more generally are discussed.