title: Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale.
abstract: Previous experiments have shown that college students benefit when they understand that challenges in the transition to college are common and improvable and, thus, that early struggles need not portend a permanent lack of belonging or potential. Could such an approach-called a lay theory intervention-be effective before college matriculation? Could this strategy reduce a portion of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic achievement gaps for entire institutions? Three double-blind experiments tested this possibility. Ninety percent of first-year college students from three institutions were randomly assigned to complete single-session, online lay theory or control materials before matriculation (n > 9,500). The lay theory interventions raised first-year full-time college enrollment among students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds exiting a high-performing charter high school network or entering a public flagship university (experiments 1 and 2) and, at a selective private university, raised disadvantaged students' cumulative first-year grade point average (experiment 3). These gains correspond to 31-40% reductions of the raw (unadjusted) institutional achievement gaps between students from disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged backgrounds at those institutions. Further, follow-up surveys suggest that the interventions improved disadvantaged students' overall college experiences, promoting use of student support services and the development of friendship networks and mentor relationships. This research therefore provides a basis for further tests of the generalizability of preparatory lay theories interventions and of their potential to reduce social inequality and improve other major life transitions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin,TX 78712; dyeager@utexas.edu gwalton@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Yeager
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; dyeager@utexas.edu gwalton@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Walton
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Shannon T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Brady
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Ezgi N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Akcinar
authors.affiliation: Project for Education Research That Scales, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paunesku
authors.affiliation: uAspire, Boston, MA 02109;
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Keane
authors.affiliation: The Character Lab, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kamentz
authors.affiliation: Department of Government, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853;
authors.forename: Gretchen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.affiliation: The Character Lab, Philadelphia, PA 19104; Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104;
authors.forename: Angela Lee
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Duckworth
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Urstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195.
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Hazel Rose
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Markus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Geoffrey L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Carol S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Dweck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000071252:Mentoring; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012944:Social Support
keywords: behavioral science; field experiment; inequality; lay theories; social psychology