People’s behavior is determined by many factors. Among them previous expectations, whether their own or someone else’s. The Pygmalion effect, also known as the Rosenthal effect, is a phenomenon that is used in psychology and pedagogy to refer to this: the potential influence that one person’s conviction can have on the performance of another (or on the performance, ability or results own).
It can be identified in different ways. One of them is when a person achieves what he set out to do thanks to the belief that he can achieve it. A self-fulfilling prophecy is when the expectation prompts the person to change the way they act so that what they expect is fulfilled. “Science confirms that we do not live up to the capabilities with which we are born, but rather to the beliefs we forge,” says Jonathan Benito, professor and researcher of neuroscience at the Autonomous University of Madrid, in the book Redefine impossible.
For Benito “the predisposition that we show towards life is what life shows with us, which is why it can block us or give us wings.” The neuroscientist highlights the neurophysiological role of placebo effects (when a patient’s positive expectations trigger the release of a set of endogenous substances such as endorphins, which are beneficial for the body) and noze (when negative expectations result in harmful substances). like cortisol).
But Benito also talks about the effect of self-fulfilling prophecy: the expectations we have and that other people have about our performance influence us, either positively (Pygmalion effect) or negatively (Golem effect).
From the European Institute of Positive Psychology, specialist Sonia Castro gives an example of the Pygmalion effect in the company or work environment. “When a worker continually receives acceptance and recognition from his boss, his self-esteem increases and there is a high possibility that the employee will show high performance in his activities and functions,” she says.
“At the opposite pole we would have just the opposite, and that is that when the superior continually criticizes the abilities and functions of a worker, what usually happens is a decrease in the quality of work. It follows that transmitting positive expectations about a group certain impact on the good performance of that group of people,” he points out.
The Pygmalion effect is also identified when the teachers’ expectations about a student’s performance or ability determine the students’ behaviors and results. If a teacher thinks that a student is not good in a subject, this idea will determine, for example, the way of correcting a test or evaluating their results.
Researchers Robert Rosenthal and Leonore Jacobson studied this phenomenon, as explained by child psychologist Alberto Soler in the book Children without Labels (Paidós). In an institute they gave some students intelligence tests and saw that they all had the same ability. Then they randomly selected 65 students and prepared false, incorrect reports, which stated that they had enormous ability, and they claimed that they would excel greatly. These reports were delivered to the teachers.
When the course ended, it was seen that the students who had been labeled (falsely) as very intelligent or capable had gotten better grades than their peers and improved their intelligence scores over the nine months of the school year. What happened is that the teachers treated these students in a discriminatory way (in a positive way) and gave them more learning opportunities so that they fulfilled the stereotype they had.
That is, at home fathers and mothers must also be careful with the expectations transmitted to their children, since they add pressure to the children. If we convey to them that we do not expect great results from them in an area, we will surely not achieve them. If we convey to them that we trust in their achievements, this will influence their self-esteem and effort, and possibly condition their behavior (positively).
This article was originally published on RAC1.