A study looked at 4,450 students in the United States who later entered college to probe why some students shun math-intensive fields. The study found that students who found math to be challenging tried to avoid all math-intensive fields. Most who avoided it believed they couldn’t do it because they found math to be difficult.

We need to abandon dangerous ideas that some people just can’t do math. Neuroscience and educational research flatly contradict such beliefs. As the new study suggests, valuing hard work over innate “genius” might even spur students to tackle new challenges. This article will highlight the experiments and data to support that valuing hard work can cause students to succeed where they previously would have given up.