Abstract All spaces are assumed to be separable and metrizable. Our main result is that the statement “For every space X, every closed subset of X has the perfect set property if and only if every analytic subset of X has the perfect set property” is equivalent to b > ω1 (hence, in particular, it is independent of ZFC). This, together with a theorem of Solecki and an example of Miller, will allow us to determine the status of the statement “For every space X, if every Γ subset of X has the perfect set property then every Γ′ subset of X has the perfect set property” as Γ, Γ′ range over all pointclasses of complexity at most analytic or coanalytic. Along the way, we define and investigate a property of independent interest. We will say that a subset W of 2ω has the Grinzing property if it is uncountable and for every uncountable Y ⊆ W there exists an uncountable collection consisting of uncountable subsets of Y with pairwise disjoint closures in 2ω. The following theorems hold. (1) There exists a subset of 2ω with the Grinzing property. (2) Assume MA + ¬CH. Then 2ω has the Grinzing property. (3) Assume CH. Then 2ω does not have the Grinzing property. The first result was obtained by Miller using a theorem of Todorčević, and is needed in the proof of our main result.