Some discussions in the world does not end. For example; One of the controversial issue is that what is more important for success; intelligence or effort? Apparently, this kind of discussion will continue. In Social Sciences, there is a principle: There is no strict truth. Starting from this, I will try to write my personal opinion on this subject.
In schools, there is a saying that we hear and classicize what we often hear everywhere: Our child is intelligent but he/she doesn’t work. He’s smart, but he’s not working. Well, why do we feel the need to stick the smart label to our child who doesn’t work?
Nobel Laureate Aziz Sancar, in an interview, said: “Most people believe in intelligence, but I don’t believe. It is the labor that makes us different from each other. I believe in the effort”. He said these things emphasizing the value of effort.
Another research that supports this discourse takes place at Stanford University. Professor Dr. Carol Dweck gives easy problems to two different groups. When the children manage to solve the problems, he says to first group: “You must be intelligent” and he says to the other group “You must have worked hard”. He then asks to both groups if they want to solve difficult questions or not. The group that was called intelligent didn’t want to solve difficult questions. But the ones that was called hard-working wanted to solve it.
As seen in the study, people who are labeled as smart do not engage in hard work. Why is that? Because if he/she tries hard, but fails, his smart label will come out of his hand and he will feel like a fool. In order to get rid of this situation, he will try to protect his label by choosing things that will make him look smart or by avoiding the difficult things that won’t make him look smart. The child thinks, if I try hard and I fail, people will think that i’m not smart.