Research
The theory and practice of mindset regulation
My research develops the theory and practice of mindset regulation: how people can recognize, understand, and intentionally shift the beliefs that shape their health and performance. My work spans randomized clinical trials, longitudinal designs, scale development, and applied intervention design.
Theory
Mindset Regulation Theory
A framework (Evans & Crum, 2023, Handbook of Emotion Regulation) for how people deliberately use their mindsets to navigate stress, challenge, and growth. It identifies three trainable processes (awareness, understanding, and intentional regulation), and proposes that our beliefs about our beliefs may also play a role.
Interventions
Holistic, multimodal interventions
I've developed several mindset interventions aimed at shifting specific beliefs. The work in my dissertation tested a holistic approach called Mindset Yoga Training, a digital program that combines mindset education, mindfulness, and yoga-based practice. In a randomized controlled trial with law students preparing for the bar exam, it improved stress mindsets, mindfulness, and overall well-being relative to a control group.
I'm especially interested in holistic, multimodal interventions that pair mental and physical ways of developing oneself in healthy directions. Weaving together movement, breathwork, beliefs, and awareness creates approaches that stay reproducible and impactful across domains, especially when they're tailored to the individual.
Wu Tsai Fellowship
Female Athlete Health, Well-being & Performance
As a Wu Tsai Human Performance Fellow, I lead a holistic project assessing and improving the health, well-being, and performance of female college student-athletes. The work examines how mindsets, yoga-based practices, and physiological pathways (HRV, recovery, inflammation) interact.
Applied Research
Mindsets, chronic disease, and catastrophic stress
I love collaborative research that applies mindset science to health challenges across domains. This includes a randomized clinical trial of a digital mindset intervention for knee osteoarthritis (Boswell, Evans et al., 2024) and a trial in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (2025) testing whether brief mindset interventions can reduce inflammation and depression following COVID-19.
Organizational Research
Research and consulting for organizations
Beyond academic settings, I consult with organizations to conduct research. That can mean shaping the questions worth asking, designing and executing studies, collecting and analyzing data, writing grants, and building and testing professional development programs. If you're curious about working together, reach out.
Selected Publications
Full list and metrics on Google Scholar.
- Barrera, J. A., Straube, L. D., Huml, Z., Yielder, R. M., Zion, S. R., Evans, K. M., … & Crum, A. J. (2025). Can catastrophes be opportunities? A randomized clinical trial testing a brief mindset intervention for reducing inflammation and depression following COVID-19. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
- Boswell, M. A., Evans, K. M., Ghandwani, D., Hastie, T., Zion, S. R., Moya, P. L., … & Delp, S. L. (2024). A randomized clinical trial testing a digital mindset intervention for knee osteoarthritis pain and activity improvement. NPJ Digital Medicine, 7(1), 285.
- Orosz, G., Török, L., Takacs, Z. K., Evans, K. M., Rigaud, K., Gál, É., & Bőthe, B. (2024). “Mindfulset” — harnessing or unleashing learning potential through mindfulness mindset. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(3), 466.
- Crum, A., Santoro, E., Handley-Miner, I., Smith, E., Evans, K. M., Moraveji, N., Achor, S., & Salovey, P. (2023). Evaluation of the “rethink stress” mindset intervention: a metacognitive approach to changing mindsets. Journal of Experimental Psychology.
- Evans, K. M., & Crum, A. (2023). Mindset regulation. In Handbook of Emotion Regulation (3rd ed.).
- Orosz, G., Evans, K. M., Török, L., et al. (2023). The differential role of growth mindset and trait mindfulness in the motivation of learning from criticism. Mindfulness.
- Zahrt, O. H., Evans, K. M., Murnane, E., Santoro, E., Baiocchi, M., Landay, J., & Crum, A. (2023). Effects of wearable fitness trackers and activity adequacy mindsets on affect, behavior, and health: longitudinal randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research.
- Boswell, M. A., Evans, K. M., Zion, S. R., Boles, D. Z., Hicks, J. L., Delp, S. L., & Crum, A. J. (2022). Mindset is associated with future physical activity and management strategies in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine.
In preparation
- Evans, K. M., Dweck, C. S., & Crum, A. (in prep). Does believing you can control your mindset matter?
- Evans, K. M., Santoro, E., Handley-Miner, I., & Crum, A. (in prep). The self-fulfilling effects of mindset: a metacognitive approach to motivate mindset change.