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The Pygmalion effect or the Rosenthal effect is a psychological phenomenon, the essence of which is that a person, at the subconscious level, builds a line of behavior based on the opinions and expectations of others.
We often, without realizing it, encounter the Pygmalion effect in life. The most striking example of this is children with deviant behavior. Nothing good is expected from them. Subconsciously, the attitude towards such children is appropriate. As a result, they live up to the expectations of others.
Another phenomenon speaks about the Pygmalion effect: when we are convinced of something, we everywhere find confirmation that we are right. For example, a manager is biased towards one of his subordinates. And, despite all his services to the company, the boss will look for flaws in his work, and will subconsciously justify the failures of other employees.
The Pygmalion effect is also called a self-fulfilling prophecy. The expected comes true. What is this connected with? There is an assumption that the brain filters incoming information in one way or another and concentrates attention according to the received settings.
- The history of the Pygmalion effect
- The Pygmalion effect and research in psychology Robert Rosenthal's first experiment - “rat motivation”
- Robert Rosenthal's second experiment - "Excellent Students"
- Testing the Pygmalion Effect in the Israel Defense Forces
- Key points of this phenomenon according to Rosenthal
What is the Pygmalion effect?
The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon according to which a person unconsciously predetermines the outcome of a situation by his expectations regarding a given situation. In a broader sense, this phenomenon is called a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” This phenomenon is observed in all sciences and spheres of human activity, since people tend to adjust their behavior in accordance with their own and others’ expectations.
The meaning of the psychological phenomenon under consideration is that a person’s expectations (positive or negative) are most likely justified. The Pygmalion (or Rosenthal) effect does not imply mystical relationships, since the person himself involuntarily makes efforts in the right direction. He believes that he knows the outcome, so he prepares for it and takes actions that seem logical to him.
Typically this effect involves the following chain of events:
- A person gains confidence in a certain outcome.
- Unconsciously, he carries out actions that bring him closer.
- He perceives the behavior and reactions of others differently.
- Thanks to his actions, expectations are met.
- The person says to himself: “Everything turned out as I thought!”
In most cases, the Pygmalion effect is a typical self-fulfilling prophecy. Initially, such a prophecy is far from reality. But people begin to act in accordance with their own expectations, as a result of which it comes true. It is important to understand that the actors themselves are not aware of their own influence on the situation. It seems to them that the prophecy has come true on its own.
How to make a self-fulfilling prophecy positive
In addition to the basic recommendations aimed at eliminating the negative aspect of the effect, in psychological practice there is an algorithm of sequential actions that will turn a self-fulfilling prophecy into a positive practice.
To do this you need:
- Determine the main goal to be achieved. This also includes the desired valuable experience or practice. Then you should rationalize your desire by making a list of step-by-step actions.
- Create a positive statement about the experience or goal. For example, the phrase “I sincerely believe that I can get an expensive position in the company.”
- Find useful actions that can significantly increase your chances of achieving a goal or necessary life experience. You should be as open as possible to receiving knowledge that is indirectly related to what you want.
- When performing the above actions, you should return to the positive phrases or affirmations that were created in step 2. It is especially important to promote self-fulfilling prophecy through support or attention. In this case, the chances of acquiring it increase.
- The occurrence of any obstacles or difficulties should be perceived as a valuable experience, thanks to which you can constantly learn from your own mistakes and move on.
With the right, structured approach, as well as the necessary belief in one's own worth, including the development of meaningful actions and timely overcoming difficulties, there is a strong chance that the prophecy will come true.
A correct understanding of the Rosenthal effect, as well as its application in life, will allow a person to achieve significant success - from everyday situations to the development or improvement of relationships, including business ones. This solution is often used in psychology as an additional technique to improve a person’s mental state.
How does the Pygmalion effect manifest itself?
In real life, this phenomenon is often associated with mystical expectations. For example, a fortune teller tells a guy that he will soon meet his destiny. And so he, anticipating the long-awaited meeting, begins to take more careful care of himself. He dresses better, shaves diligently and behaves more refined. He also smiles warmly at every stranger he likes, looking into her eyes with interest. And thanks to this behavior, he soon actually meets a nice girl.
Interestingly, the Pygmalion effect is often found among scientists who are not at all inclined to believe in mystical relationships. It can occur in any science, at all stages of an experiment that people can influence. Even if a direct influence on the phenomenon under study is impossible, it directly depends on people how the data obtained will be interpreted or systematized, what parallels and relationships will be identified when processing the results.
This effect is very pronounced in children. A child who is regularly praised for his academic achievements gains self-confidence and learns better. If you convince him that he is an incapable student, then from now on his grades will be appropriate. Moreover, already in childhood it is possible to “program” a person’s fate, convincing him that a great future awaits him or that, on the contrary, he will grow up to be a loser.
How a self-fulfilling prophecy comes true
The original idea of a self-fulfilling or self-fulfilling prophecy was developed from Thomas's well-established theorem in sociology, the essence of which is described as follows: “When an individual determines a situation to be real, it is so based on the consequences.”
The main example of prophecies can be considered a thought experiment with a carriage, where people enter in order, whom passengers, based on external signs, consider to be controllers. Thus, if individuals do not have any doubts about the conductors, reality appears based on its consequences - passengers begin to provide tickets for their verification.
Also in one of the scientist’s works, a fictitious situation was considered in which the hypothetical Cartwright Millingville Bank played a key role. It was assumed that initially the financial position of the institution was good - it had a certain reserve of assets, most of which were invested in other projects.
The psychologist suggests imagining a situation where a large number of new depositors unexpectedly enter a bank, causing the old ones to spread rumors about possible bankruptcy and financial troubles. As a result, the institution is actually declared bankrupt and closed.
The group of people who suffer from depressive disorder are also characterized by dysfunctional beliefs that carry with them a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a person’s thoughts about the impossibility of happiness without love and recognition of this by others can convince him and reduce his chances of success.
How did the term come about?
The Pygmalion effect was discovered by the American psychologist Robert Rosenthal (which is why in the professional literature it is usually called the Rosenthal effect). The discoverer himself named the discovered phenomenon in honor of the famous mythical character.
According to myth, the brilliant sculptor Pygmalion from the island of Crete once carved an ivory statue so beautiful that he himself fell in love with it. He dressed her in luxurious clothes and gave her expensive gifts. Seeing such love, Aphrodite revived the statue, who became the sculptor’s wife and bore him three children.
This beautiful ancient Greek myth symbolizes the power of faith and persistent desire. Therefore, it was in honor of the fictional sculptor that Rosenthal named the phenomenon he discovered.
The most notable are two experiments confirming the existence of the Rosenthal effect. Let's take a closer look at them.
Research
The original Rosenthal-Jacobson study proved the existence of the Pygmalion effect in learning. However, over the past 5 decades since the study was conducted, a large number of scientists have tracked the same effect in different conditions. The Pygmalion effect is now found in higher education, in government and in the military, in the home and virtually anywhere leadership plays a role .
When a manager has high expectations of his employees, they tend to perform significantly better. Most importantly, parents' high expectations are one of the most important factors in a child's success.
First experiment – “Pygmalion in the classroom”
The first of the famous experiments was carried out by the discoverer himself, together with Lenore Jacobson in 1965, to demonstrate what the Pygmalion effect is in practice. The results of the work were published in 1968 under the title “Pygmalion in the Classroom.”
The experiment was conducted among high school students in San Francisco. The children took an IQ test and some of them randomly overestimated. Teachers were surprised by such indicators, since the selected students showed very mediocre academic progress. Psychologists responded that the children had not yet proven themselves, but would soon demonstrate their true potential.
When the scientists came to the school at the end of the year, it turned out that the experiment participants they had selected were now the best students in the class. After re-testing, they found that the IQ of the “selected” students had increased significantly. Thus, Rosenthal and Jacobson demonstrated how much student success depends on how much teachers believe in their abilities.
Subsequently, based on this study, a program was proposed to stimulate the development of children using similar methods. But it turned out to be unsuccessful, since it was impossible to provide the necessary conditions. The fact is that in the original study, the decisive factor was the conviction of the teachers themselves that the children chosen by psychologists were gifted.
⚑ What experiments did Rosenthal conduct?
Robert Rosenthal conducted quite a lot of experiments to confirm the existence of the Pygmalion phenomenon, the most famous of which is the “Rosenthal’s Children” experiment. This study was conducted in one of the elementary schools in San Francisco in collaboration with director Lenora Jacobson.
Rosenthal carefully studied the intellectual abilities of children and concluded that all students showed approximately the same results. After randomly selecting a certain number of children, the experimenter told the teachers that with the right approach, these students could significantly increase their IQ level because they had hidden potential.
At the end of the school year, the psychologist repeated his experiment. He conducted a repeat test to determine the students' intellectual abilities. The results showed that those children whose hidden potential Rosenthal told teachers received higher test scores than the rest of the experiment participants.
The scientist explained this by saying that teachers, unconsciously having certain expectations regarding these particular students, conveyed to them the desired moods on a non-verbal level. This is how their completely unfounded prophecies about these randomly selected children were realized.
Inflated expectations of teachers, according to the psychologist, most directly influenced the progress of “gifted” students. Expecting high results, teachers took a different approach to their learning process: they tried to motivate and inspire students, gave them more creative freedom, allowed them to express themselves and demonstrate individuality.
Another famous experiment by Rosenthal was a study involving students and rats. The scientist divided all the students participating in the experiment into two groups: he told the first group that they would interact with poorly trained rats, and the second group that they would interact with well-trained rats. The level of learning of all rats was almost the same.
At the end of the experiment, Rosenthal obtained completely different results: those rats that he designated as well-trained showed higher results than their “poorly trained” relatives. In this experiment, the psychologist focused not on the interaction between teacher and students, but on the experimenter’s persistence to prove the truth of his beliefs.
Second experiment - “Programmed sympathy”
In 1986, Rebecca Curtis and Kim Miller published the results of another study that explains well what the Pygmalion effect is. Its participants were students who initially did not know each other. They were randomly paired up and had to just hang out for a while. At the same time, some randomly selected participants were “warned” that their interlocutor liked them. Others were told that the interlocutor had antipathy towards them.
The results of the experiment were predictable. Students who were initially confident that their interlocutor already liked them communicated more affably and perceived their partner positively. They were more outspoken, diligently looking for common interests and views. But the most interesting thing is that the confidence of one person led to the fact that the second (who did not receive any “warnings” at all) after the conversation really felt strong sympathy for him.
Situations from life
The Pygmalion (Rosenthal) effect can occur in many life situations. It is talked about in cases where a person has low self-esteem. Such individuals do not easily achieve career growth and often remain unhappy in their personal lives.
Quite often this phenomenon is encountered in pedagogy. Students who, for certain reasons, are disliked by teachers and accused of all sorts of violations, tend to have low academic performance and not follow the rules of discipline. Such students subconsciously take on the negative image attributed to them. In contrast, the so-called favorites can boast of good grades and no complaints about their behavior.
Another area that allows us to observe manifestations of the Pygmalion effect is medicine. If there is mutual respect and constructive dialogue between the doctor and the patient, the results of therapy are most often positive and lead to recovery. Doctors who are irritated and dismissive towards their patients have an undesirable effect on their general condition. The natural result of this is a deterioration in the vital signs of patients and a prolonged course of the existing disease.
Practical meaning
The Rosenthal effect is not just a psychological phenomenon of interest to researchers. It influences the life of almost every person. Most often you may encounter the following manifestations:
- Self-esteem and success
. People suffering from low self-esteem experience serious difficulties with career growth. It is more difficult for them to arrange their personal life and make good friends. They themselves believe that they are not worthy of success in life. And those around you feel it, reacting accordingly. Inflated self-esteem acts in the opposite way. A self-confident person moves up the career ladder faster, effortlessly becomes the “life of the party” and enjoys success with the opposite sex. - The importance of attitude in medicine
. The attitude of the doctor and the patient plays a big role in the treatment process. If both are initially committed to a positive outcome, the likelihood of its occurrence increases significantly. But a negative attitude may well lead to the opposite effect. That is why doctors always strive to convince the patient and his relatives of a favorable outcome of any treatment. - Teacher's attitude and student's success
. If a teacher initially treats a student with disdain, this significantly reduces the student’s performance. At school, this attitude on the part of teachers also leads to problems with the behavior of children. Usually a child is inclined to believe adults, so he accepts the image of a slacker and a hooligan imposed on him. Thanks to this effect, students who are initially liked by teachers demonstrate higher academic success and diligent behavior.
With a good understanding of what the Pygmalion effect is and how it works, you will be able to notice many more of its manifestations in real life. Thus, the successes of subordinates often depend on the expectations of their superiors, and parents largely determine the fate of their own children, convincing them at an early age that they are talented (or, conversely, untalented). Perhaps you yourself have encountered a situation where you were able to do something incredibly difficult only thanks to 100% confidence in success.
Rosenthal effect and business
Recently, it has become relevant to study the influence of the Pygmalion (Rosenthal) effect on career growth in various fields of business. A number of studies have documented a correlation between a company's performance and the manager's belief in its success.
The differences between a successful employee and an outsider directly depend on the attitude of management towards them. The administration either shows trust in its subordinates or it does not. Management behavior plays a key role in this situation.
Consciously or unconsciously, a manager who mentally sets the bar high for his employees inspires them to achieve high performance. Nonverbal signs and a favorable attitude are very subtly felt.
Conversely, a leader who doubts the strengths and capabilities of his subordinates ultimately lives up to his own expectations.
An employee who fears failure and displeasure from management will prevent situations that lead to difficulties. For example, he will back out of a deal for fear of being rejected.
A low level of expectations on the part of the administration contributes to the manifestation of errors and failures in the work of subordinates.
An analysis of other studies has demonstrated that young professionals are more dependent on the point of view of their superiors. And this point of view is fundamental for their future career growth or, conversely, stagnation.
Pygmalion syndrome: escape from reality
Each coin has two sides. This psychological phenomenon has the so-called Pygmalion syndrome. Often we endow a person with qualities that he does not possess. Just as Pygmalion in love identified the statue of Galatea with a living woman and tried to evoke a reciprocal feeling, so we attribute non-existent abilities to people and experience disappointment if our expectations do not come true.
In reality, people may not even be aware of our idea of them. If a person experiences difficulties in everyday life, then he is more prone to a fictitious perception of reality. In a state of depression, the human psyche develops a defense mechanism in which there is a withdrawal from the real world.
Another type of Pygmalion syndrome is described as a rejection of real life events, attachment only to a narrow perception of a fictional world (Galatea), and a rejection of real reality. A person susceptible to this syndrome is able to accept the world around him only within the framework of his isolated worldview, without noticing existing circumstances. A person with Pygmalion syndrome of this type is especially dangerous when endowed with power.
