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. I focus on metacognitive mindsets: not just what we believe, but what we believe about our beliefs (are mindsets self-fulfilling? can I control them?), and how awareness practices can help us regulate them. 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 meta-mindsets are the prerequisite for sustained adaptive change.
Dissertation
Controllable Mindset
My dissertation introduced and validated the Controllable Mindset (CMM) measure across seven studies. People who believe they can shift their own mindsets show greater resilience, well-being, and larger gains from mindset interventions.
Intervention
Mindset Yoga Training (MY-T)
A digital intervention I developed that combines mindset education, mindfulness training, and yoga-based practice. In an RCT with law students preparing for the bar exam, MY-T improved stress mindsets, mindfulness, and overall well-being relative to a control group.
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 — a population that mindset and sports science have historically underserved. The work examines how mindsets, awareness practices, and physiological pathways (HRV, recovery, inflammation) interact.
Applied Research
Mindsets, Chronic Disease & Catastrophic Stress
Collaborative research applying mindset science to health challenges. 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.
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.