The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion Effect is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to higher performance.

It can be best understood by a circle where OUR BELIEFS about another person's abilities influence OUR ACTIONS towards the other person. This action has an impact on the OTHERS´ BELIEFS about themselves. The beliefs about themselves cause the OTHERS´ ACTIONS towards us, which again reinforces OUR BELIEFS about that person. And so on and on and on…

The Pygmalion effect is also known as the Rosenthal Experiment, named after a research of Robert Rosenthal at Harvard. In a first study, he challenged test subjects to coach rats through a maze. Half of the group were told their rats were extremely intelligent and specifically trained. The other half were told that their rats were ‘dumb’. In fact, the rats were all the same. During the experiment, however, the `smart rats´ performed well better than the `dumb ones´. This showed how the expectations of the coaches influenced even the performance of rats. 

Robert Rosenthal concluded: 

“When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur.”