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How does learning about scientists' struggles during their scientific knowledge building affect students' science learning? Two hundred and seventy-one high school students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions:(a) the struggle-oriented background information (n= 90) condition, which presented students with stories about 3 scientists' struggles in creating the content knowledge that the students were learning through online physics instructional units;(b) the achievement-oriented background information (n= 88) condition, in which students learned about these 3 scientists' lifetime achievements; and (c) a no background information (n= 93) condition, a control group in which students mainly learned information about the physics contents they were studying. Our measures assessed perceptions of scientists, interest in physics lessons, recall of science concepts, and physics problem solving. We found that the …