[dpflan]

Being praised for being smart begets cheating because of the pressure to continue to be perceived as smart ("The researchers believe that praising ability is tied to performance pressure in a way that praising behavior isn’t."). The behavior praise stressses the past while the ability praises uphold an idea of permanent ability; perhaps the phrasing of the praise is significant too ("'You are so smart' vs 'You did very well this time.'") because the behavior praise adds a reference to the action; while, the ability praise does not yet implies so.