Strategic mindset facilitates social feedback processing and self-concept adjustment

The mindsets related to individuals’ abilities and personalities can explain why some people are more open to learning from others and improving themselves. A strategic mindset, which involves frequently asking oneself strategy-eliciting questions, has been linked to better academic performance among students. Yet the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying the strategic mindset in the domain of social interaction remain unclear. Here, we investigated the relationships among a strategic mindset, social feedback processing, and self-concept adjustment. Our event-related potential study (n = 41) showed a negative correlation between a strategic mindset and the neural indicator of social conflict (ie the N400 component). Moreover, a strategic mindset selectively responds to positive social feedback, supported by its positive correlations with the amplitude of the late positive potential in response to desirable feedback. Our behavioral study (n = 45) further demonstrated that individuals with a higher level of strategic mindset were more likely to update their self-concept based on conflicting opinions presented by others. We differentiated a strategic mindset from a growth mindset and showed that it explained unique variance in two studies. These findings may have practical implications for interventions aimed at encouraging individuals to ask strategy-eliciting questions and facilitating personal growth.