Your expectations shape your reality
Pygmalion Effect: The influence we exert on others
🏷️ Categories: Motivation, Social relationships, History
In ancient Cyprus, Pygmalion, a skilled sculptor, carved in ivory a statue of a perfectly beautiful woman he called Galatea.
Pygmalion spent hours gazing at his creation, admiring it to the point of falling madly in love with the ivory woman. So enamored was he with his creation that he begged Aphrodite to give her life. The goddess Aphrodite, moved by his devotion, granted his wish and transformed the statue into a living woman.
So strong was his desire that he finally succeeded in bringing the statue to life.
I tell you this story for a simple reason.
We are not aware of the enormous influence we exert on others.
Psychological influence of the Pygmalion effect
In psychological terms, the Pygmalion effect causes one person's expectations and beliefs to influence the performance and behavior of others.
The effect was discovered by Rosenthal and Jacobson in research involving students at an elementary school in San Francisco. The researchers told teachers that certain students (chosen at random) had unusually high intellectual potential. By the end of the course, all of these students had increased their academic performance compared to their peers.
Teacher expectations directly influenced performance.
Why does it happen?
1. Communication:
We all have preferences, no one is impartial.
The expectations we place on another person are made known through the comments we make, tone of voice, body language... (Rosenthal, 2002). These expectations arise from our preferences, how good the relationship with the other person is, etc.
All this influences the confidence, attention and motivation we communicate.
2. Motivation and self-esteem:
This is very powerful.
Positive expectations raise self-esteem, we believe more in our abilities and, therefore, we try harder and give up less (Bandura, 1997), we feel the need to repay everyone for the confidence they have in us.
When they let me know they have confidence in my abilities, I try twice or three times as hard.
On the contrary, the person from whom very little is expected tends to suffer from discouragement and insecurity as they perceive that they cannot change their situation even if they make an effort, which undermines their motivation and mental health (Klusmann et al., 2008; Marsh and Craven, 2006).
3. Support network:
If no one trusts you, no one supports you, and if no one supports you you are more likely to fail.
The worst thing is that it feeds back.
If you fail, those who didn't support you will confirm their belief: you weren't worth trusting. Teachers who pay more attention to students from whom they expect a lot are letting others down (Jussim & Harber, 2005). In doing so, they make their preferred students perform better and make their belief real.
They will think they were right, they knew which students had potential and which did not.
They actually made the difference among the students.
Maybe there was some potential in those students, maybe, but in the end, the difference in abilities between them and the rest of the class gets bigger and bigger, they start to progress some much more than others and it feeds back.
Those people in whom there are high expectations tend to occupy all the attention and resources, which makes them have an advantage and develop more (Good and Brophy, 2000).
To those who already have, everything will be given,
to those who do not have, everything will be taken away.
Daily examples of the Pygmalion effect
We are social beings, we are always influencing each other.
Bosses who believe in the potential of their employees tend to create an environment conducive to the development of their staff. In the end, they progress faster than workers in companies where nothing special is expected of them even when they had the same initial level (Eden, 1990). The same process occurs in parents towards their children (Merton, 1948) and in coaches towards their athletes (Horn, 2008).
Do not fool yourself either, you are not going to achieve everything just by relying on the trust of others.
The outcome of your actions depends on many factors that are out of your direct control and depend on your environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). However, if we all do our bit we can make those around us grow and they in turn can make us grow.
Your environment can be your burden or your drive.
Instead of discouraging others when things go wrong, let them know what mistakes they made and what they need to work on more to achieve what they set out to do. Lend them your support in any way you can and you will be a boost to your environment.
It's common sense, but we forget the power of our influence.
If yours are doing well, you'll do better.
That's the power of the Pygmalion effect.
Mental Garden is no exception.
I told my friends about the idea I had to start writing. I drew up a plan that my friends improved on with their ideas. There was a phrase that was repeated in all the conversations: “if you start writing I know you will not stop because you are a big head, then pass me your texts and I will tell you what I thought of them”.
When I don't feel like writing, I remember them and make double or triple the effort.
✍️ It's your turn: Have you ever felt the support of your loved ones pushing you on when you thought you couldn't go on? I have and I am deeply grateful to them for it.
💭 Quote of the Day: “It's not about what is, it's about what can become.” Dr. Seuss in The Lorax.
References 📚
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W H Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development. En Harvard University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674028845
Eden, D. (1990). Pygmalion in management: Productivity as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lexington Books/D. C. Heath and Com.
Good, T. L., & Lavigne, A. L. (2017). Looking in Classrooms. En Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315627519
Horn, T. S. (2008). Advances in sport psychology (3rd ed.). Human Kinetics.
Jussim, L., & Harber, K. D. (2005). Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(2), 131–155. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0902_3
Klusmann, U., Kunter, M., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., & Baumert, J. (2008). Teachers' occupational well-being and quality of instruction: The important role of self-regulatory patterns. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(3), 702–715. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.702
Marsh, H. W., & Craven, R. G. (2006). Reciprocal effects of self-concept and performance from a multidimensional perspective: Beyond seductive pleasure and unidimensional perspectives. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 133–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00010.x
Merton, R. K. (1948). The Self-Fulfilling prophecy. The Antioch Review, 8(2), 193. https://doi.org/10.2307/4609267
Rosenthal, R. (2002). Covert communication in classrooms, clinics, courtrooms, and cubicles. American Psychologist, 57(11), 839–849. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.11.839
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. Urban Review/The Urban Review, 3(1), 16-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02322211
It's no fluke that I enjoy your writing!