I believe; therefore, I work harder: The significance of reflective thinking on effort-making in academic failure in a Confucian-heritage cultural context

•Reflective thinking after academic failure, encompassing beliefs, attribution, and affect, contributes to subsequent effort-making.•Improvement-oriented beliefs of effort induce attribution to insufficient effort, triggering indebtedness that motivates effort.•Obligation-oriented beliefs of effort both trigger indebtedness prompting subsequent effort and impact effort without feelings of indebtedness.•Students are encouraged to reflect upon failure as an opportunity for cultivating persistence and building character.