The psychology of failure
In a study conducted in 2019, researchers embarked on an intriguing experiment involving more than 400 participants. The task at hand? Learning a completely fabricated language adorned with enigmatic symbols. Each participant was presented with pairs of these runes and tasked with discovering their meanings through questions such as, "Which of these symbols represents an animal?" Following a brief intermission, the participants encountered the same pairs of symbols once again, but this time, the questions were reversed, asking , "Which of these symbols represent a non-living object?" However, there was a twist lurking beneath the surface of this linguistic game. The responses provided by the participants in the initial round served as the blueprint for determining the meanings of the symbols in the subsequent round. Some were informed that they had answered every question correctly in the first round, while others were instructed that their responses were entirely incorrect. This strategic manipulation ensured an equilibrium among all participants at the intermission, leveling the playing field for the ensuing round. Surprisingly, those who had succeeded in decoding the symbols in the first round tended to excel once again, while those who had failed continued to struggle.