Pygmalion Effect

QUOTE

Sam Walton once said…

“High expectations are the key to everything.”

CONCEPT

Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion Effect refers to the psychological phenomenon in which higher expectations lead to an increase in performance.

When people are expected to excel, they're likely to perform better than if they were expected to fail. This happens because the expectations set for individuals directly influence their belief in themselves and their abilities, thereby affecting their performance.

STORY

I Choose You And You ... And You?

In 1968, two psychologists, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, embarked on a ground-breaking experiment at an elementary school in South San Francisco, a study that would soon become a landmark in the field of social psychology.

At the start of the academic year, every student at the school was given an IQ test. Rosenthal and Jacobson explained to the teachers that this was a special type of IQ test, a "Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition."

The test was designed to predict not only the children's current performance but also their intellectual bloom, identifying those students who were on the cusp of a significant advancement in their learning potential.

Afterwards, the psychologists randomly selected 20% of the students, without any regard to their actual test results, and provided their names to the teachers, labeling these students as "academic spurters." They were described as pupils who, while not necessarily performing remarkably at present, were expected to academically excel in the coming year.

These so-called "academic spurters" were, in reality, no different from the other 80% of their peers. Their designation was purely arbitrary.

The only variable was the expectation that had been set for them.

Throughout the academic year, the teachers, knowingly or not, acted on these expectations, providing more feedback, more approval, and more time to answer questions to the students they believed were about to bloom intellectually.

When the school year came to an end, the students were again given the same IQ test. The results were striking.

The "academic spurters," who were once ordinary students, had shown a significant improvement in their IQ scores compared to their peers. First and second graders showed an average increase of 27.4 and 16.5 points, respectively. Even though the improvements were less dramatic for older students, the effects were still statistically significant.

The teachers' beliefs, though initially unfounded, had transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy, unlocking a higher potential in the students who were expected to bloom.