THE PYGMALION EFFECT

The Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon whereby increased performance results from higher expectations.

Higher expectations cause performance to rise, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the Pygmalion effect—also called the Rosenthal effect. It is called for the Greek myth of Pygmalion, who, by his belief and expectation, brought a statue he had made to life. He fell in love with it. In the realm of psychology, the Pygmalion effect is the theory that states that if a person is expected to perform well, they are more likely to perform well; if they are expected to perform poorly, they are more likely to perform poorly. One can observe this impact in the workplace, sports, and education, among other places. The Pygmalion effect emphasizes the need for good expectations and their influence on personal performance and self-esteem.

It is easiest described as a loop where our behaviors toward another person depend on our opinions about their capacity. This behavior influences the opinions of the other person about themselves. The actions of others toward you reflect our own views about that individual, which once again support those beliefs. And so on and on.

Let’s consider an example, starting with your views. Imagine you are a basketball team coach watching your squad on the first day. Chris and Joe joined your team recently. Chris reminds you of a rather well-known athlete. Joe reminds you of a nasty lad from your time in high school.

You unconsciously choose what to expect from every one of them. Your opinions shape your behavior; you are glad to see Chris as he walks onto the court. Playing you pushes him to do better, practice more, and stay an extra hour. Should he make a mistake, you indicated how he might do better. You hardly noticed Joe when he arrived.

Although you're happy to see him score, you don't give him many comments, and you don't spend extra time on his training. You are slightly upset when Joe makes a mistake. Chris feels you value him, and he values you in return; hence, your actions affect his views about himself. He feels he is successful personally. Joe does not believe in his own achievements and feels you have little respect for him.

Chris never misses a training session; he discovers more and more delight and plays based on his opinions about himself. He gives 100 percent all the time during the games. Joe does not give his all in the games and gets less pleasure from playing than he used to.

Sometimes he misses the training sessions. This supports your impressions of Chris: you observe his enjoyment of playing, his rigorous training, and his quick performance improvement.

Joe seems not very motivated; his abilities don't improve as much, and he starts to turn up less. You knew exactly what I meant. Thank you for having the correct instincts!

The Rosenthal experiment, so named for a Harvard study by Robert Rosenthal, is another term for the Pygmalion impact. In his first experiment, he let test subjects guide rats through a maze. While half of the group was informed their rats were dumb, half were informed their rats were very intelligent and specifically taught. The rats were all exactly the same, actually. But during the trial, the "smart" rats did better than the "dumb" ones.

This demonstrated how the coaches' expectations affected even rat performance. Together with Lenore Jacobson, Rosenthal conducted the Pygmalion in a school study.

At the start of the academic year, a group of elementary school instructors were informed that some of their new students possessed outstanding ability and potential. This fully made-up material was presented about arbitrary typical pupils in every lesson. Every pupil has completed the IQ exam beforehand. The pupils identified as more gifted had notably improved their IQ test scores at the conclusion of the year compared to the others.

"When we expect certain behaviors from others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur," Robert Rosenthal said. What do you think about this theory?

And do you think there is any way we may avoid being bad-shaved by others?

Written by: AUSTIN RACHAEL