Hard workers are better role models than geniuses, a recent research discovered. Thomas Edison, who is often used as an example of a hard working scientist, is more inspirational than a genius like Albert Einstein.

Hard work, not brilliance, inspire the youth

We are more motivated to strive to achieve a goal when we know it requires hard work, rather than a brilliant mind. This is the conclusion that Penn State University’s scholars arrived to in their studies of motivation.

Janet Ahn, who is an assistant professor of psychology, pointed out that there is a belief that one has to be extremely intelligent to succeed as a scientist. This is one of the reasons that people don’t choose science as their profession.

But struggling is a normal thing in scientific work, as well as the bright intellect alone doesn’t bring success.

To check what works the best, the researchers conducted 3 studies.

In the first study students were reading a story about common struggles that a scientist experiences. In half of the group Albert Einstein was the hero, while the other half was reading a story where Thomas Edison was the protagonist. The rest of the story was exactly the same; only the name of the hero changed.

Surprisingly, students were more likely to feel that the reason Einstein’s achievement was his brilliance. When participants were asked to solve a series of math problems after reading the story, the ones who were learning about Edison showed more enthusiasm to undertake the task.

In this case, the text of the story was the same, but students had preconceptions. Because Edison is known for failing 1000 times before succeeding, the narrative was more inspiring to undertake a hard task.

In the second series of studies, a story about a struggling scientist included Einstein and a fictional researcher named Mark Johnson. This time students who were reading the narrative describing Johnson would get better results at the math test.

In the third study, researchers used all 3 names: Einstein, Edison, and Johnson. This time it is the people who read the story about Edison that performed the best. Einstein demotivated participants the most.

The preconceptions led participants to get into a certain state of mind. Einstein, known for his exceptional intellect, gave participants little motivation. Vice versa, the preconceived ideas about Edison linked to his effort was inspirational.

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