Pygmalion Effect
Why we usually behave the way others expect us to
© Mariia Korneeva / Adobe Stock
Does it make a difference to our performance whether others expect a lot or little from us? The Pygmalion Effect shows that we usually behave the way others see us.
Hand on heart: We all love to be right, don’t we? It doesn’t matter whether we expect a positive or a negative result – we are secretly happy when our assessment is correct. But what if we use our expectations to influence how something turns out? What if the person from whom we now expect a certain action or performance does exactly that – simply because we expect it? Or vice versa: What if we ourselves react in a certain way because our counterpart expects it from us? The so-called Pygmalion effect describes exactly this phenomenon.
Pygmalion and his ideal wife
The Pygmalion effect goes back to the eponymous sculptor from Greek mythology. Pygmalion was so disappointed in women that he created a female statue as a projection of his expectations – the ideal woman, so to speak – and fell in love with her. At his request, Venus, the goddess of love, brought the statue to life for Pygmalion. So he literally created the perfect woman out of his desires and expectations.
The psychological phenomenon is very similar: it is assumed that people can improve their performance by having others expect more of them. The Pygmalion effect is particularly noticeable in the school environment: if teachers expect that a student is particularly talented, in many cases he/she will actually perform better.
Large experiment at school confirms Pygmalion effect
The phenomenon was scientifically proven by the US psychologist Robert Rosenthal and the school principal Lenore F. Jacobsen in the 1960s. They have one for that field experiment performed at Jacobsen’s elementary school in the USA. The school’s teachers were told that 20 percent of the students were about to make a developmental leap and that they could expect to do significantly better in the coming year. In fact, these children were randomly selected for the experiment.
All primary school students completed an IQ test – both at the beginning of the experiment and eight months later. The increase in IQ was greater than that of the rest of the students who were said to have particularly high potential to improve achievement. And since all the conditions other than the info the teachers had about this supposed potential hadn’t changed, Rosenthal concluded and Jacobsen concluded that only the teachers’ higher expectations led to the actual improvement in IQ.
The Pygmalion Effect: A Self Fulfilling Prophecy
The two of them saw this as confirmation of their assumption that the teachers had unconsciously treated the children who were about to make a supposed leap in development unconsciously and given them more support. This then led to an actual increase in performance – a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just as Pygmalion created his ideal woman from his expectations, so did the teachers bring about the improved achievements of the students.
What Rosenthal and Jacobsen found out in their experiment at school can also be applied to other areas of life: the mother, who expects a lot from a child, could unconsciously ensure that her offspring actually perform better than their siblings . The employee from whom the boss has particularly high hopes and whom she encourages will probably confirm these high expectations through his commitment.
But the Pygmalion effect can also be observed in a relationship: because how we see our partner, he or she will probably actually become. If we look at him or her in a positive light and expect certain things within the partnership, it could be that we unconsciously encourage exactly this behavior.
At the same time, the opposite could also happen: If I don’t expect much from my:my partner:in à la “She’s forgetting to go shopping after work today anyway”, then the chances are not bad that that will happen too really occurs. Because we unconsciously signal to our counterpart that we don’t really believe in them. He or she may then resign and believe that they cannot please us anyway.
What can we learn from this?
The Pygmalion Effect once again confirms that our thoughts are a powerful tool. Not only can they affect how we behave and how we appear to others, but ultimately how others behave. We shouldn’t forget that – neither in relationships nor at work or when dealing with children. Because the expectations that we – sometimes unconsciously – communicate to other people can have a strong influence on how they actually behave.
Sources used: geo.de, duq.edu, paket.de