Does teacher praise make children feel less smart? Two preregistered virtual reality experiments

Does teacher praise make children feel less smart? When two students perform equally, teachers might praise the student they believe worked harder, implicitly conveying to that student that they have lower ability. We tested this hypothesis through two preregistered experiments in a novel Virtual Reality classroom with children aged 7-13 (Study 1: N = 212, Study 2: N = 225). After the child and a virtual classmate performed equally on a task, the teacher praised the child, the classmate, both, or neither. Contrary to hypotheses, there was no evidence that praise made children feel less smart, think that the teacher believed they were less smart, or experience elevated physiological arousal (heart rate, heart rate variability, blushing, skin conductance). Study 2 suggests that children instead viewed praise as a sign of being liked by the teacher. Our studies offer robust evidence that teacher praise may not make children feel less smart.